


Memoirs of the Malcontent

by StarvingLunatic



Series: Pariah [2]
Category: Kim Possible (Cartoon)
Genre: Adoption, Alternate Universe, Bullying, Child Abandonment, F/F, Family Bonding, Family Drama, Friendship, Mild Sexual Content, Novel, One Shot Collection, Past Child Abuse, Sibling Bonding, Social Outcast, Violence, Wordcount: 50.000-100.000, Wordcount: Over 50.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-02-24
Updated: 2006-04-03
Packaged: 2018-02-09 15:31:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 14
Words: 57,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1988181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarvingLunatic/pseuds/StarvingLunatic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prequel to Pariah. Trin and Shin share their history in a series of one shots.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Small Possibility

**Author's Note:**

> I don’t own most of the characters. I did come up with Trin, Shin, and Tatsu, so they’re mine. Everybody else goes to Disney.
> 
> This is for everyone that wanted to see more of Trin, Shin, and Tatsu. Hope you enjoy. If you don’t know who those guys are, you might want to read “Pariah” before tackling this. The stories are told with the characters is looking back on things.
> 
> Parentheses indicate whose POV things are from.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own most of the characters. I did come up with Trin, Shin, and Tatsu, so they’re mine. Everybody else goes to Disney.
> 
> This is for everyone that wanted to see more of Trin, Shin, and Tatsu. Hope you enjoy. If you don’t know who those guys are, you might want to read “Pariah” before tackling this. The stories are told with the characters is looking back on things.
> 
> Parentheses indicate whose POV things are from.

Memoirs of the Malcontent

1: A Small Possibility

(Trin)

I haven’t always been so tall. There was a time when I wasn’t even up to my mother’s waist. I was little when I was young. Yes, there was a time when I was a child. I’m sure it would a surprise to a lot of people to find out I was once a child. I wasn’t hatched from an egg nor was I born from a volcano. I hadn’t even sprung from the Earth fully grown. I was a very small child, in every sense of the word.

I started out very short. I was always very pale. I don’t know why that is since I have always gone outside often. Perhaps I was sickly and just didn’t know because I hadn’t been to a doctor until I can into my parents’ care. I was thin, but that was probably because I had only just gotten into the hands of people that cared. I was also very, very scared.

One day, my new mother, my better mother, Mrs. Possible took me to the mall. The mall at the time represented absolute terror to me. I would have been more in favor of going to the lowest levels of Hell than entering that damnable mall.

It was my first time back in the mall since my better parents adopted me. I couldn’t step into the mall for quite a long time after the Possibles found me. I didn’t mean to be so troublesome when it came to the mall, but I couldn’t help it. I was completely and utterly terror stricken of that place. Mrs. Possible had tried to take me back there several times before that day and I just couldn’t do it. I had full-blown panic attacks because of that accursed place. She didn’t want me to develop a phobia, so she always tried, but until that day, I always fell to my knees and began shaking when she took me to the mall. I never cried because I promised myself to never cry in front of my good parents.

Still, whenever we went to the mall before that day, I always collapsed to the ground and just could not move. My body simply refused to move. Mrs. Possible never pressured me. She would always take me back home.

That time around, I made it through the front doors somehow without feeling like I was going to have eight heart attacks all at the same time. I used to imagine that the mall was a living organism, something that could devour me whenever it felt like it and trap me in eternal darkness before dissolving me in its belly. Not a monster, or even a predator. Just a large organism that could swallow me whole whenever the urge ever came over it, like a whale. I was very surprised to not be in a stomach when I entered the mall. I actually let out a breath that I was subconsciously holding. I was still alive and in the mall. It absolutely amazed me.

It was a strange place, though. The crowd bothered me, even then. It wasn’t so much the people, but the din. The noise the people made seemed more like the noise of the mall, like this creature was breathing or bellowing. All of the stores seemed warped to me, at the time. Nothing in the mall was a straight line. Everything bent and had an edge, ready to impale me.

I held Mrs. Possible’s hand when we went in, just like she told me to. I was obedient like that, much like a pet would be. She could have told me to yelp like a puppy and I would have. I would have done anything she told me to because I never wanted her or her husband to have a reason to want to get rid of me. I suppose it was a good thing they are kind people or who knows what they might have had me doing when they realized how badly I wanted to stay with them.

I also held her hand because, inside, I feared the mall even more. Somehow, I felt like being by her side and her holding me, these would somehow keep the mall at bay. It could not eat me if I had her hand. The strange logic of a paranoid child.

Mrs. Possible also held her daughter. I remember how wide I grinned when they told me that I had a baby sister. I thought of Kim as a sister from the first moment that I saw her. She was pure perfection and I vowed right then to make sure nothing ever happened to her. I was proud they trusted me enough to say that she was my baby sister as soon as the adoption went through. I understood it was a very important job to be a big sister and I always took it seriously.

Kim had just turned two when this day took place. It was during the era when I was the great protector from all and every monster in existence. If you don’t believe me, ask Kim. I protected her from monsters, being sort of an expert on the subject at the time. I knew monsters very well. She used to climb over the guardrail around her bed and sneak into my room to get away from all sorts of shadows that only a child can see. I have come to understand that most children go to parents for things like that, not their midget, featherweight siblings. I can tell why that plan wouldn’t and didn’t work in our house.

Our parents are a rocket scientist and a brain surgeon. They are extremely logical beings, even though they are just as creative. If Kim or myself were to go to them and tell them there was a monster in the closet, they wouldn’t check the closet. They would sit us down and explain to us why it wasn’t feasible for a monster to be in the closet and then send us on our way.

Look, I don’t mind logic now, but when you’re three-feet-tall and lucky to be able to reach the doorknob, you want something a bit more reassuring than the Socratic Method, which was one of their favorite techniques for getting us to come to conclusions on our own. You want someone to check in the closet, reveal that it is empty, and say something like “I must’ve scared away the monster.” A child likes to think her parents can scare the shit out of a monster, pardon my language.

Well, to get back on track, I was holding Mrs. Possible’s hand. It was not a new concept to me as one might guess. Believe it or not, the woman that gave birth to me used to hold my hand all of the time. I believe now that it wasn’t that she was attempting to lose me when she left me places. Quite the contrary, she wanted to know right where she left me because she always came back. So, she always held onto me tightly until she came to the place where she wished be rid of me. Then, I was on my own.

To this day, I wonder why I never ran after that woman when she began walking away from me. I always let go of her hand when she released me and stupidly waited for her like she wanted. It was as if I didn’t want to be with her, but I was too scared to be on my own completely. I knew if I waited there long enough, she would come back. She always came back. I often waited through rain, snow, harsh winds, and nights alone on the street. I’d just tell myself she would come back and she always did and I always left with her. It didn’t matter what I had gone through or what state of mind she was in, she came back and I left with her. I might not even be happy to see her, but whenever she showed up, I’d grab her hand and we would walk off together.

So, I was an expert at holding hands. Or at least, I assumed I was. Mrs. Possible was naïve to the practice, I’m certain of that. I never would have gotten away from the woman that gave birth to me, especially not as easily as I had gotten away from Mrs. Possible. You know, I didn’t mean to let go of her hand. I was so accustomed to larger hands gripping mine as if they were clamps and my hand was unbreakable.

Mrs. Possible held my hand differently. It was not as if our hands were shackles, but as if she was merely saying that she was there for me and she wanted me to be aware of that through her touch. As a child, you only vaguely realize these things and I’d like to think that I was a perceptive child. Yet, I let go.

Maybe it was because I was able to let go that I did. It was the first time that I was able to let go. Maybe I was frightened to have a mother that seemed to care about me beyond being some object that she used for attention. Or maybe it was because a chocolate-chip cookie the size of a bicycle wheel deserved a little attention. Yes, I stopped to stare at a huge cookie. I was five years old and cookies will always be good.

I was memorized by the giant cookie for the appropriate few seconds that a child would be. Well, it might have been closer to a minute. Then I realized I wasn’t holding a soft hand anymore and worst yet, the smell of raspberries was fading. Yes, I know her scent very well. She still uses a raspberry body lotion that I had committed to memory days after living with the Possibles. This scent comforted me through many nightmares. The aroma was fading, meaning I had stayed longer than I assumed and my adopted mother quite plausibly hadn’t noticed she wasn’t tugging my very little body weight anymore. As I said, I was small in every sense of the word and I would have been quite surprised if she noticed my absence.

At first, I panicked. I was horrified, like a lion was charging me with its jaws open and displaying those three-inch long canine teeth. It was a new type of terror for me. I doubt I can explain it even now. It was worse than jumping out of a plane and the parachute not opening. I suspect that it was like freezing to death. A sudden impact death is swift, quick. The moment after you realize that you’re going to die, you are dead. Freezing to death is a long, drawn out, and painful death all the while knowing that you’re going to die. I felt like that for a few moments. Okay, maybe it was longer than a few moments.

It was actually worst than when I realized that day that the woman who gave birth to me had abandoned me in this accursed place. No one was aware of the fact that I had actually been in the mall for over a week before the Possibles stumbled across me. I ate by stealing food from the tables at the food court. I washed my face in the fountains. I even managed to steal a new outfit to avoid smelling too horrible. Clever I was, but I doubt that I was smart. I mean, I still waited for that woman to return, after all. Well, I would not wait again! Not that Mrs. Possible compared to that woman.

Still, I decided I wouldn’t wait again. I picked up my guts, courage, and my soul and ordered myself to not wait again. Why wait for someone who probably wasn’t going to come back? Why should Mrs. Possible come back, after all? It wasn’t like I was really her daughter. I was merely an urchin that she and Mr. Possible picked up in that very mall. I figured that they would eventually dump me back there one day sooner or later to just be rid of me, which was another reason I never wanted to go into the mall. _How ironic_ , I thought. The first time back in that place after getting over my negative thoughts, they had come true. I had been abandoned in that damnable mall once again.

 _So what_ , I said to myself. You know, so what I had been left by the Possibles? I didn’t need them anyway, I told myself. They were weird anyway.

Yes, I thought they were weird. They were always hugging me and stuff like that. What kinds of parents hug you? None that I knew at the time. They read to me, too. Oh, I thought this was extremely peculiar behavior. I would always ask myself what kind of people read. I liked it, but still, I didn’t think people read to children at the time. I thought they were freaking weirdoes and that was why it was all right to not be with them anymore.

 _I didn’t like living with them anyway_ , I had confidently shouted in my head. They made me wake up early in the morning. When I used to live with the woman who gave birth to me, I got up whenever I felt like it. Sometimes, she would be in our rundown, roach-infested, mouse-infested apartment and sometimes, it was just all of us that weren’t paying rent, namely me, the roaches, and the mice; you know, the vermin. The Possibles were always home when I woke up and there weren’t any tiny critters in the house that weren’t paying rent, except for me and Kim. Strange happenings as far as I was concerned… or that was what I told myself in those moments to bluster my ego.

Another thing that struck me as odd at the time was that whenever I woke up, there was always breakfast waiting for me. It was so bizarre. Mrs. Possible made hot cereals like oatmeal, porridge, which I quickly became quite fond of, and things, which I had never experienced. If not those items, there would be omelets, toast, bagels, and many other breakfast foods. I liked it, of course, but at the time, I told myself otherwise.

I told myself they were weird and I would be better off without them. I walked off. No more waiting ever again. I have no idea where I was even thinking about going at the time. I just strolled off with no money in my pockets and just the clothes on my back, swearing that I would be much better off on my own rather than with the Possibles. I didn’t even know what state I was in at the time. I couldn’t even tell time at the time. But, I swore that I was better off.

It took some minutes and my circling the third floor a couple of times, for me to realize that I might actually miss the Possibles. I had chosen to stay with them when I had the chance, making sure not to tell anyone my family name or anything else important, so I couldn’t be sent back to that woman. While I admit that I wasn’t very smart, I wasn’t exactly stupid. The people that created me versus the Possibles, it wasn’t a fair contest.

Those people that created me, they weren’t close to the Possibles. They were nuts. They were scum. They were assholes. I knew I was lucky to get the hell away from them and I was so happy to get away from them. It wasn’t like that with the Possibles. I wasn’t happy to be separated from them.

Oh, to be five years old and lost in a personal hell while trying to swear that everything was going to be fine, I was overwrought in under an hour. I wanted my new mommy to come back for me. She had gone from Mrs. Possible in my head to “mommy” in about thirty minutes. I had gone from being on top of the world to being ready to fall apart without them. I don’t know, maybe it was because I was five or because I’m very crazy that I flip-flopped so easily. All I know, I wanted to go back to them and we hadn’t been parted for a whole hour yet.

I used to be separated from the woman who gave birth to me for days on end and, to be quite honest, I didn’t care. I didn’t miss her once. I waited for her, yes, and I left with her whenever she wandered back to me, but I never missed her once. So, it was new to me to miss someone and it was frightening.

I felt lost in more than just my wanderings now. I didn’t understand why I missed them at the time. I know now that I missed them because they were the type of parents that children deserve. They are loving, caring, warm, and concerned, which were things I wasn’t accustomed to at the time. I was much more familiar with being a ghost, a source of conflict, an object. I was just an object, a little trinket to those people that created me. To the Possibles, I was a human being and subconsciously, I missed that after losing it for only an hour.

I eventually wound up next the entrance of the mall, which was weird because I don’t recall getting on the escalator or getting in the elevator. I have no clue how I got there. I rubbed my forehead as I paced the front of the mall, wondering if I should leave the belly of the beast. The world was huge and I was so small, yet I would face the world alone if I exited that damnable mall.

I stared out of the glass doors and my fears grew exponentially with every second that passed. I was so anxious at that point that breathing was becoming a chore of me. My tiny chest ached with each inhale and my lungs burned as if they had been set on fire. I sincerely didn’t desire to be alone in such a frightening place as the world was, but I didn’t see any way around it. I mean, it was obvious to me that my parents, all four of them, didn’t want me.

Part of me wanted to cry at the thought of being unwanted by everyone. I must’ve been such a loathsome creature. I believed that at a very young age. I had to be a detestable thing because no one wanted me. I’d like to say that I didn’t pity myself, but I was five. A five-year-old doesn’t know much about pride or self-respect, making them just a little smarter than the adult population when it comes to certain things. I felt sorry for myself because I didn’t want to be a despised trinket.

I walked over to a fountain and looked at my reflection in the water. My hair was combed and brushed perfectly, as Mrs. Possible wouldn’t have it any other way. She always made sure that I was presentable, not just my hair. Having my hair done was something I appreciated even at that young age. Before her, my scalp used to always itch and my hair was like four different kinds of messes, tangled, matted, oily, and I’m sure full of bites. Before her, I looked like the urchin that I was.

Mrs. Possible also made sure that my face was always clean. The woman who gave birth to me never seemed to care about that. My clothes were always clean and pressed when it came to Mrs. Possible. She was the person who took me to get my first pair of glasses, which I had on at the time. She was actually the first person to notice that I required glasses. She was such a nice person, so why didn’t she want me, I wondered.

I wanted to know why a person like Mrs. Possible would leave me in that fucking mall! Was it because I was not her real daughter? Was it because I was annoying? Was it because she didn’t really like me? I had already come to understand that I wasn’t likable. Those people who created me used to argue over me all of the time while I was standing right there, calling me all types of names and blaming me for all manners of things, things I didn’t even know what they were. No, they didn’t like me much at all.

I studied my very pale face in the fountain water and tried so hard to figure out what was so disagreeable about me. I came to the conclusion that it was because I was so small. It was what made me so different from those that disliked me. They were big and I was small. They were healthy complexions and I was pale, like a doll, a little trinket. Yes, I was just a trinket and they were people. That had to be it, I decided. I wasn’t really a person, just a thing.

“Trin!” I heard Mr. Possible call.

I turned my head as he came toward me. He grabbed me into a tight hug, pressing my small body against him rather hard. I didn’t tell him, but it hurt a little bit. I didn’t understand why he embraced me. I didn’t get the whole hugging thing and I still don’t really get it.

Mr. Possible then put me down on the ground and went into something that I understood very well, he began reprimanding me for wandering away from Mrs. Possible. I took all of the scolding without interrupting him. I believed that if I let him admonish me, maybe even hit me if he wanted to, then maybe he’d take me back home with him. I just wanted to have a home to go to, but the best would be to go back to the Possible home. The worst thing he could have done to me was to leave me there.

Of course, he didn’t leave me there. I know for a fact that he never even thought to do something so cruel. Once he finished scolding me, he picked me up to go home. I was so relieved, even though I was hurt for being yelled at. I was five and no five-year-old wants to be yelled at. At least he hadn’t hit me, I thought at the time. The man who helped create me, he used to hit me when I saw him, which was why I wouldn’t have minded if Mr. Possible hit him. But, he never hit him. The Possibles never physically hurt me.

Mr. Possible took me out to the car, where his wife was waiting in the front seat. She opened her door and grabbed me from her husband. She hugged me tightly, just like Mr. Possible had done. It didn’t hurt as much, but it was hard to breath. She cried tears of joy when she was holding me.

“I thought I lost you, Trin. I’m so sorry. I’m so very sorry,” Mrs. Possible apologized to me. It was the first time that someone apologized to me. It was the first time that something wasn’t my fault.

“It’s okay… Mommy,” I said. It was the first time that I had ever used that term, not just for her, but ever. It was that day that I realized I was a Possible. They were my parents and I was their daughter. 

-8-8-8-8-

Next time: Trin meets Shin, much to the rest of the world’s dismay. 

-8-8-8-8-

A/N: I’m sort of experimenting with the first person POV. I’m not very comfortable with it, so I need to know if it’s good or not. Let me know.


	2. See Shin run

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own these characters, except for Trin, Shin, and Tatsu. Everyone else goes to Disney or just isn’t important.
> 
> A/N: You know, this is going to let everyone know just how stupid I am. I’m wondering why the name for chapter one sounds so familiar to me and then it finally hits me, that is the name of a story NoDrogs did. My bad on stealing that title, but NoDrogs said it was cool. You should check out the story if you haven’t already.
> 
> This chapter actually ran very long, so I broke it up into two parts. This is the first part of Trin and Shin meeting and becoming friends. 
> 
> Warning: if you don’t like little kids getting beat up and bullied, don’t read this.

2: See Shin run

(Shin)

When I first met her, you wouldn’t even believe that it was her. She was so very small then. I’m talking a tiny, little thing. She was nothing then. I wouldn’t believe she would grow up to be a dragon. When I first saw I wouldn’t have believed she would grow up to be a demon. She didn’t have any claws or fangs or a poisonous bite back then. She was seriously nothing.

I suppose it’s fair to point out that back then I lacked all the things that make me feared now, too. I didn’t have anything, but I had more than she did. I had a secret weapon, at the least. I still have that secret weapon. But, talking about my secret weapon would be getting off topic. After all, this is about the day I first saw that oh-so scary bitch.

It was a grey day, like it was going to rain or something like that. I was being the usual brat. I’ve been proudly being that way since the day that I was born. I’ve been an escape artist since I managed to get out of my mother’s womb two months ahead of schedule. Panicked the crap out of her at the time and I’ve been doing that ever since. Oh, how I loved giving that woman a run for her money and I was doing just that on that fateful day.

I was making a nice getaway on my brand new bike. It was hush money to get me to stop whining about moving to a new town. My mother knew it would take more than a new bike to shut me up, but it was a good start. I was thankful she didn’t just shut me up be calling my father, which she could have easily done and it damn sure would’ve been cheaper than a new bike. I wasn’t punishing her for making us move because I kind of understood why we had to, as much as a kid can understand why his mother moved him. I was just getting us both a little exercise at the time.

Anyway, it was all good until my attention was grabbed by a bulge on a flagpole some feet away from me. Now, I was six at the time and when a six-year-old is riding a bike as fast as possible, it is always better to focus on the road ahead rather than thinking stupid things like the flagpole looked pregnant for some reason. Well, I was thinking that very idiotic thought and failed to notice the huge crack in the sidewalk. I hit the crack and was thrown from my bike at a good speed. It couldn’t have been more frightening than if it happened in slow motion.

Now, I’ve never been one for safety and my mother was never big on the issue either. One of the reasons I’m here, but that’s a different story. The thing was that I wasn’t wearing a helmet or pads, so when I hit the ground, it hurt quite a bit. I rolled around on the concrete after landing stylishly on my face and skidding a few more inches than I liked. I sat up, rubbing my then sore forehead and what I later found out was some mean road rash. I was probably lucky I had already lost my front teeth to nature or I definitely would’ve lost them in that accident. And then I noticed I had landed in front of that very distracting flagpole. I then found out why it looked pregnant; she was tethered to the thing.

Yes, tied a couple of feet off of the ground was my future best friend, apparently having a far worse day than I was. Once I saw her, I was much too fascinated to be hurt. Besides, my mother wasn’t around to baby me, so there was no point in crying as far as I was concerned.

So, instead of weeping, I stood up and stared at the very peculiar sight of a tiny blonde munchkin fastened to a flagpole. One of the binding tools appeared to be her own jacket; I assumed it was hers because it did not make any sense to me that someone would tie a girl up in their jacket, especially if they weren’t going to stick around. Yes, she was definitely having a worse day than I was.

I wiped away some blood that was dripping from my nose thanks to my accident and then I approached her for a closer look. As I went into the grass, I heard a crunch under my feet and looked down. I had stepped on some glasses and that sparked her to life like an “on” switch.

“No, that’s my third pair this month,” she groaned in a very low voice.

I laughed a bit, a kind of nervous and embarrassed laugh that I don’t have anymore, and picked up her glasses. I had done a number on them, but I try not to admit fault whenever I can help it. I decided not to address the issue of her ruined eyewear.

“Do you need a hand?” I asked. It might seem like a stupid question, seeing as how she was a tiny thing tied to a pole with her feet not even touching the ground. To make matters worse, she didn’t have any shoes. At the time, I figured she was having the worst day of her life, but I learned otherwise later on. I am glad I asked since she was always an independent cow, even when she was a frightened bug.

“My mom and dad are gonna be mad,” she hoarse whispered.

I didn’t think anything of her mumbling, which was a good thing. She worried about the dumbest things back then. I know why she did, but knowing the reasoning behind something did not make it logical or intelligent.

I went up to her completely with the plan of putting her glasses on her face to show her that I hadn’t destroyed them too terribly with my oversized feet. As I said, I try not to accept fault, even back then. I lifted up her face and that damn harpy could have had the courtesy to warn me about what I was about to witness. Instead, I was in for a shock.

Her pale face was bruised almost dark purple with a lump on her cheek and a busted lip, which was swollen on the left side. Her face was also bloody, far worse than mine from my fall. I gasped and dropped her useless glasses to the grass. It was like I was watching television because I had never seen someone so beaten up before. Little did I know that soon we would be twin, little Frankenstein monsters. Once I saw her face, I knew I had to get her down before whoever had done that to her came back.

My pudgy little fingers worked hard to get out all of those knots. It was like a Boy Scout troop had attached her to that damned pole. My heart pounded the whole time and I kept looking over my shoulder, making sure whoever did this wasn’t coming back. She dropped to the ground with all the grace of a brick and coughed. I watched in sheer horror as a tooth fell out of her mouth. I’m not sure how my eyes stayed in my skull because I know they were wide as hell.

At that moment, all I wanted was for my mother to find me and get me away from the beaten blonde. She scared me. She truly frightened me, down to my bones. Her wounds scared me. It was the type of fear that one gets from wondering what kind of person would do such a thing to a little girl and wondering if that person was still around. If that person was still around, I wanted my mommy. Yes, I call her mommy to this very day. I wanted her around to save me if things got bad and that wasn’t just some childish faith that a mother could do anything.

“May I have my glasses back?” she requested, resting on her hands and knees.

I picked up her very broken glasses and handed them over with trembling hands, as if I was terrified of her, as if she was the monster that had injured herself. I then backed away from her, but she didn’t seem to notice or care, sitting in the grass, trying to figure out how to put her glasses back on. I searched the area for my bike, hoping to escape the bleeding girl now before she harmed me in some manner. My bike lay at the edge of the sidewalk and I was going to go to it, but the beast girl spoke again.

“Thank you,” she said in the most polite and quiet tone of voice I had ever heard.

I answered that it was no problem or something of the like before running to my bike. I picked it up and mounted the thing, ready to ride off to find my mother for once. But, as I was about to pedal away, I noticed her looking at me. Her eyes were so sad and they haunted me for a very long time, beyond this day. They also prevented me from moving for a while. We stared at each other in silence.

“I’m Shin,” I finally said. “Shin Toriyama.”

She didn’t reply, as if she didn’t comprehend that I was trying to be friendly, which she probably didn’t. After that, I didn’t stick around. I had to find my mother and get a cry in after falling off of my bike and meeting such a frightening little girl. My mother would make everything better, maybe with some hugs and cookies.

-8-8-8-8-8-

(Trin)

To hear him tell the story, it seemed like I was some sort of freak that liked being kicked in the face and tied to flagpoles. At least he has grown out of telling it like he was some big hero, as if he was Perseus and I was Andromeda. It was also refreshing that the little coward admitted to abandoning me, not that I required his help.

But, had it been up to him at that moment, it might have been it. He would have run from me and we would have been two lone evil twins with no other half. Perhaps the world would have been better off, but I never did give a damn about the world.

My father came and got me a little while after Shin rode off like the useless little coward he will always be. It wasn’t something new that I missed the school bus for whatever reasons, but my father still flipped out when he saw the cuts and bruises. He also didn’t like that my glasses had been crushed. Damn Shin and his godforsaken clown feet. As I had informed Shin, that had been my third pair of glasses that month alone.

I quietly took the scolding that came from my father that was accompanied by his deep concern. My father always had a tough and peculiar job when it came to me. He had to be stern and a disciplinarian all the while knowing that I would have been on the bus had I not had an appointment to get my ass kicked, an appointment I was unaware of until the moment it happened. So, I had to be informed how worried he and my mother were when I didn’t get off of the bus, which was where the scolding came in. I know now that he was just scared, but back then, I wish he didn’t reprimand me for stuff like this.

He then went into inquiring where my shoes and book bag where. I told him the truth and that was that they had both been dumped into one of the drainage openings in the sidewalks. That was the fifth pair of shoes I had lost that month and the second book bag. The bad thing was that there had been plenty of month left. I went through a lot of shoes, glasses, book bags, and jackets when I was little.

For a couple of days, everything went on as it normally would and then I saw him again. He was a new student in my class and he did not seem pleased with that, frowning from the very second he came in. He never did look very happy to be there. The kids laughed at him for some reason that to this day is beyond me when he introduced himself. They then proceeded to ask him if he was Chinese. His name is Shinichi Toriyama. Where in that name does it suggest that he might be Chinese? He didn’t seem offended and explained with a forced smile that he was half Japanese; I’m guessing his mother bribed him in some way to make him even go to school that day. The students still referred to him as “the Chinese kid.” Apparently, listening wasn’t their strong point and all Asians were Chinese to them.

The moronic teacher wasn’t much better. She mispronounced his name seconds after he said it. He corrected her, only for the twit to do it again the next time she called on him. She made us blondes look so bad. I suppose I should bring up the fact that Middleton wasn’t a very diverse community at the time. Shin was the first Asian-looking student at our school, which was too bad for him. Being of Asian descent was his first mistake it would seem.

His next mistake was that he showed he had a brain. It opened him up to racist comments since he was of Asian descent and our teacher, being a dumb bitch, didn’t curb the remarks. She even gave into stereotypes sometimes. I repeat, dumb bitch.

Shin’s last mistake was attempting to speak with me. He noticed me reading in the schoolyard all alone and that didn’t seem to be a clue to him that I was the untouchable of the whole place. I won’t share what I was reading at the time, but it wasn’t an elementary school level book and I had already been beaten up a couple of times for reading it. Once because a boy noticed that there were no pictures in the book and, apparently, that was a cause for alarm. Shin sat down next to me and tried to strike up a conversation, asking me a million and one questions about my book. I ignored him for both of our sakes and I just didn’t feel like being bothered.

I had had people pretend to be my friend on a few occasions and I quickly learned to stop longing for companionship. They always betrayed me as soon as they could, causing something terrible to happen to me for the sake of a laugh. Once, a boy that had feigned friendship pushed me off of the jungle gym and broke my arm. Another time, a girl put on the pretense of being friend, only to sneak putting some kind of super spice in my lunch, burning my mouth so intensely I had to go to the nurse. So, I learned to be wary of all people at the time.

I knew I wasn’t a person to them. I was a thing. I was just a trinket once I left my house in the morning and I was that until I was back at home. I was just a thing to everyone in that school, an object for them to abuse and ridicule, and I thought that he might treat me the same way because as far as I could tell, everyone except for my parents and sister saw me as an object.

Shin wisely wasn’t looking to put up with me and walked off to go find something better to do. It seemed that the other students didn’t approve of him trying to talk to me, but he appeased them when they confronted him in someway. He always told me that he informed them that I was nothing more than a three-foot harpy. I doubt he said that, but whatever he said saved his ass that day. It didn’t save me, though. Once they were done with him, they stormed over to me and beat me up for bothering him. I had expected as much.

-8-8-8-8-

(Shin)

I didn’t mean to get her beaten up, of course. She later on told me that it wasn’t my fault, but I had been the one bothering her and I was the one that gave them the excuse. She claimed they didn’t need an excuse, which I can believe and eventually even found out. But, that was one of the few things in life that I accepted blame for, especially after I saw her face. They beat on her like a piñata. To this day, I don’t know what the hell was wrong with this damn kids. 

I have been hardheaded for most of my life, so where most people would have left her alone to avoid the abuse for both of us, I had to go back for more. Besides, she had been reading a book by Ovid. I didn’t even know who Ovid was at the time, but the sheer size of the book told me that she was a creature with some level of intellect. I considered that she might make a slightly better friend than all of the morons that continued to refer to me as “the Chinese kid.” Some of the older assholes even called me “Jet Li” or “Jackie Chan” and had the nerve to get pissed when I didn’t answer them.

I got her beaten quite a few times after that, trying to get her to introduce herself, even though I already knew her name thanks to our stupid teacher. Sometimes, I would try to get her to talk about her book, but she never said a word. She hardly ever looked at me. I didn’t know it, but the little harpy-to-be was attempting to help me.

I eventually learned the schoolyard’s hierarchy, which started out with going by grade, even though each grade its own hierarchy, too. The kindergartners were at the bottom on the chain, but even they were above “the Chinese kid” and even I was above her. It was a sad fact, but it was a fact. I often wondered why she was so different from everyone else. Why was she at the very bottom of the food chain?

I couldn’t figure it out. She wasn’t Asian. She wasn’t any type of minority. She was a little blonde cutie with blue eyes. She should’ve popular, but she was far from that and it didn’t make any sense. She was lower than a stray cat to those kids. She was merely an object for them to abuse as entertainment. She was something for them to pick on and a way for them to feel better out themselves through hurting a weaker child. I suppose I could’ve moved up a notch or two by joining them, but I didn’t know why they were picking on her and I didn’t want to be like them. Besides, my mother would’ve whipped my little ass if she found me bullying some girl, especially a girl who hadn’t done anything to me and was pretty damn small.

Instead, I tried to dig myself down to her level in the hierarchy, especially after a certain incident in the lunchroom. I sat with her in a corner, a serious, for real corner. It appeared that she wasn’t allowed to sit at a table like the rest of the so-called human beings. She sat on the floor in a corner.

The teachers never bothered her, they never forced her to sit at a table, but I knew it wasn’t because she liked sitting there. For the teachers that did care, it was a way to keep her from getting beaten up by not trying to put her some place the other kids didn’t want her and for the teachers that didn’t care, well, they didn’t care. There were plenty of those that didn’t care. Why? Who the hell knows.

Anyway, I sat down with her and had lunch with her. She didn’t say anything and she didn’t look at me for a few minutes, but I caught her attention when I pulled out a package of sushi for lunch. The one thing that the mini-monster had in common with women was that she was a curious creature. I suppose it was an intellectual curiosity because she was very learned even at such a young age, so she was probably opened to new things that she knew from other cultures.

But, I finally had her attention, especially when I ate one of the pieces of sushi. I probably grinned all the way through since I love all kinds of sushi. My mother always said that I was my father’s son, but then again, she always said he would probably eat a whole fish raw, bones and all. I wouldn’t take it that far. I could tell she wasn’t going to ask, but she wanted to try one because she kept glancing at them. I offered and at first, she refused by shaking her head. I insisted and she probably accepted to get me away from her. She had no idea, but I thrived from positive attention paid to me by females.

I asked her if it was good and she only nodded. The sad look in her eyes disappeared for a moment and then a look of horror replaced any sign of joy that was trying to make itself known. Had I been older, I would’ve known that the look meant that there was an asshole behind me, but I wasn’t older. I was only six and not yet accustomed to being tormented because I was different.

A big kid came up behind me. He snatched my lunch from me. He looked at the food with contempt and smelled it. He then flung my beloved sushi to the floor. He wasn’t done being a dick yet. He grabbed her by the face and neck, squeezing her tightly, forcing her to cough up the sushi that she was eating.

I called for a teacher while he was holding her by the face, obviously hurting her, but all of the teachers ignored what was going on. They pretended not to see as he dropped her back on the floor with bruises already forming on her light peach cheeks. She was struggling to breathe while he stole her lunch and walked off. I growled in anger and was ready to go after him. She grabbed my arm and shook her head, but she didn’t say a word. I knew what she wanted, though. She was requesting that I stay put. She probably saved my butt considering the kid was a giant, especially compared to me, and he had a clique of goons while I didn’t even have an evil twin at the time, but we were on our way there. Bruises run thicker than blood.

-8-8-8-8-

Next time: On this to-be-continued installment, Shin sees a glimpse of the woman he knows in the girl he has just met when he gets into some big trouble. Also, meeting Shin’s mother. You know you wonder what she’s like.


	3. Holier than thou

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own these characters, except for Trin, Shin, and Tatsu. Everyone else goes to Disney.
> 
> This is the second part of Trin and Shin becoming friends.
> 
> Yeah, this one has the same warning as last time. Children are cruel.

3: Holier than thou

(Trin) 

Shin always was impulsive. He also wasn’t used to the abuse yet, but he did seem to be a glutton for it. He kept coming over to me, trying to be my friend and little by little the spoiled brat was cracking my shell. But, as he cracked my shell, I still tried to keep him away, no longer for my sake, but for his. I didn’t want him to get hurt and beat up for being with me. He was such a little idiot. He didn’t understand what I was. I wished that he would learn. I really wanted him to stay away from me and I tried to tell him.

Shin used to have a goofy, innocent, very childish grin and he flashed it to me whenever I tried to tell him to keep away from me. It was a toothy, adorable expression. It was really cute when he did it without his two front teeth, which he explained where taken by the tooth fairy. I didn’t even know what that was and wondered why a fairy would want teeth. Shin didn’t care since she left money for his teeth, but I digress.

Shin’s big grin used to get him out of all sorts of trouble with his mother. It didn’t work on me, but he liked using it. I still tried to get him away from me. I really didn’t want him to suffer, as I knew he would. I knew how they were and he didn’t, but he didn’t seem to believe me. He always was an idiot.

It took a couple of months for the students to get completely fed up with him trying to be my friend. I suppose they noticed how I was resisting, but he was so persistent. They also just didn’t like Shin very much because he was “the Chinese kid.” He was different and they decided to teach him what that meant.

They waited until recess and practically the whole school ganged up on him. They yanked him away from me while he was bugging me about a book that I was reading. I don’t even recall what the book was because I wasn’t going to be reading it for long. He yelled for me, as if he knew what they had planned for him. He wanted me to help him as they pulled him away to be mutilated and shamed.

I only watched as they dragged him off. I was too terrified to move. I knew how painful his beating was going to be, but at no time was I glad that it was him and not me. Some people might think that, but I didn’t. I just didn’t want to get hurt again. I didn’t want to feel that pain if it could be avoided because you never get used it. It doesn’t dull over time. It always hurts.

I closed my eyes and tried to ignore his screaming as they started in on him, taking turns punching him all over his little body while a couple of boys held him still. I knew how it started and I knew how agonizing it felt. Soon they would get into kicking, scratching if the girls wanted some licks, and hitting with rocks for those that just couldn’t seem to hit hard enough, in their own opinions of course. When he started calling my name like a prayer, I just got up and walked away.

I just wanted to get out of earshot. I didn’t want to hear him begging me to join him for what was pretty much a lynching without death in my opinion. I heard them laughing and cheering while he cried out for _me_ , not for anyone else, only for me. I listened as they called him racial slurs. The funny thing, in retrospect anyway, was that since they were so incredibly stupid, they were using the wrong ones. Tears filled my eyes as I tried to get away from the noise, but no amount of distance between us seemed to quiet down his screaming. I was certain I could’ve gone to the moon and still heard him calling me.

I wasn’t paying attention as I tried to get away and I tripped over what appeared to be an abandoned stickball bat. I turned to look at it with angry eyes. I was upset it slowed my retreat down. Then I heard for him calling me again, screaming for me to help at the top of his tiny lungs. My anger then changed from the bat to myself. I was angry with myself.

I asked myself, what kind of person would leave a friend to such a horrific fate? I knew how badly such a fate was and I didn’t even have someone to call out to. He did. I knew that if I had someone to holler for and that person left, I’d have died on the inside quite a bit.

I barely knew what I was doing as I tossed my book aside like the useless piece of crap it was at the time. I picked up the stickball bat and slowly, methodically made my way back to the crowd. I then began swinging like a girl possessed, but they weren’t wild swings. They were all right on the money. I hit everyone where I wanted to with frightening precision, uncaring as I broke skin and bone. It was the first time that my demons came out to play. It was a good thing for those kids that I didn’t have a real bat or I’d have seriously injured those pricks. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Shin)

I saw her swinging that stick. The look in her eyes, I would never forget it and that was not because I would see it again several times through out our lives. The look in her eyes wasn’t that of a human, no regular human anyway. It wasn’t even the look of an animal or a bloodthirsty beast. It was like I was looking at the devil in her skin. It was like she was a soldier on the battlefield and to continue on fighting, she had to remove herself from her mind and the slaughter, but while she was gone, a demon took over her form. By the time that she made it to me, I was scared of her again.

I would say that was the first time that she looked like a dragon, but it wasn’t. She was a demon at that time to me. I thought she might crush me with her weapon just like she had done all of the others. Instead, she stopped once she got to me and stared at me with a maniacal look in her eyes while trying to catch her breath. There was something in her eyes that spoke to me. It was as if she was telling me to look at all of the beautiful agony she dealt out just for me. No one else at the time, not even herself. It was only for me. She’ll never know how special I felt in that moment, even while utterly terrified of her.

I truly don’t believe she planned on making it to me, but I do think that I was as far as she wanted to go. She just stood there once she was before me, stick forgotten, danger forgotten. After that, we got fucked up together.

I guess it was selfish of me to scream for the harpy as I had done. I wasn’t thinking at the time. I just wanted the beating to stop. I just wanted some help. She gave it to me, but it got her beaten up in return. But, it was nice to know later on that I was the reason that she fought back for the first time.

The crazy thing was that she and I ended up going to the principal’s office. The story that they were trying to sell was that we started the whole fight. Us, just me and her. Like we were the miniature versions of Bonnie and Clyde, I guess. We were two six-year-olds that didn’t even associate with anyone and we started a fight with the whole damn schoolyard? Those people were fucking bonkers if they seriously expected our parents were stupid enough to buy that.

As we sat outside the principal’s office, I noticed her crying in the corner. She had just gone psycho on everyone and taught them to think twice about messing with her and she was the one crying. I walked over to her and sat down with her. I put my short arm around her shoulders and she actually cried on me. I know now she was crying out of fear and not pain. At the time, I thought that she was hurt since we did just get jacked up pretty bad by the whole school. So, I held her because I didn’t know what else to do; it wasn’t like I could stop any agony that she was in.

My mother showed up before her parents did. My mother wasn’t working at the time; I think she was on leave or something like that. Anyway, she came into the office and looked around for me. I called out for her and she came to the corner.

“Oh, little man, what happened to your face?” my mother asked when she saw me. She was used to me getting beat up, but I had implored her to not go up to the school. I wanted to handle it myself, which only led her to stating with a smile that I was my father’s son. Up until right this moment, she let me handle it.

“Got into a fight,” I proclaimed proudly. Getting into a fight wasn’t something to be ashamed of at my house, losing the fight was frowned on, though. I liked to believe that my mother understood that I couldn’t beat a whole school at the age of six.

“Again? And what about her?” my mother asked when she noticed that I was holding a weeping girl.

“Her, too.”

My mother nodded, but before she could say anything, the secretary called her to let her know that the principal would see her now. She smiled at me and picked me up. She also took my partner-in-crime gently by the hand and we all went into the office. Oh, the principal was about to be in for a nice surprise.

“Mrs. Toriyama?” the fat, balding man with a comb-over said as my mother sat me and my partner-in-crime down in the pair of seats in front of the desk. His voice was one of confusion. Oh, it was just priceless. The look in his fat face was so bemused, as he squinted and scrunched up his face, trying to figure out what the hell he was looking at.

The guy was puzzled for one simple reason and that is because my mother is not Japanese. My mother isn’t even Asian. She looks African-American, but she’s actually half Black and half White. She doesn’t really claim a race. It throws a lot of people for a loop to this day. It even used to confuse me, but that was only because I had no idea what to consider myself. I settled on telling people that I was half Japanese just because that was about the easiest thing to do. After a while, I started telling people I’m a Martian because it entertained me to tell them that.

I have always made it a point to never tell anyone my mother’s, I suppose I could say ethnicity, because I like the look of shock that appears on people’s faces. It was always amusing. The principal certainly was no exception to that rule.

“Yes, I am,” my mother confirmed to answer the fat man’s question. She was married to my father for years by that time, but it struck people as odd for a woman clearly of African descent to have a Japanese last name. My parents were always into shock and awe, even when it came to each other.

“You’re his mother?” the principal asked while pointing at me. Was it so hard to believe that a woman that appeared to be African-American could have a son that appeared to be Asian? At the time, in that school, yes.

“Yes, this is my little man. Is that a problem?” she countered, rubbing the top of my head, but close to glaring at the principal.

Another thing about my mother that could be important was that she was young when she had me. She was seventeen to be exact. So, she was twenty-three at the time and she looked younger than that. She had slightly chubby cheeks that made her look like a teenager and a short haircut, so it made people assume that they could push her around. Always a bad thing to assume.

“He and his troublemaking little friend started a fight in the schoolyard,” the principal reported.

I didn’t understand why my so-called friend was being called a troublemaker, but as it turned out, the principal didn’t like her for the simple fact that her parents cared about her, as far as I could tell anyway. They went up there often to try and find out why their daughter was coming home looking like she was in a plane crash. I guess, he didn’t like trying to get them to understand that their daughter wasn’t supposed to be cared about or something like that. Obviously, like the rest of the world, he knew how she had come into the hands of her parents and had an opinion on the matter as if it was his business.

“Wow, you started a fight?” my mother asked me while rubbing the top of my head again.

“I dunno,” I said with a shrug because I really didn’t know. I suppose if it was looked at it in a bizarre way, I did start the fight. I had provoked those wild, totally uncivilized brats by hanging around their whipping girl, but that wasn’t really any of their business. I could be friends with whomever I wanted.

“You know, you’re not supposed to start a fight you can’t finish,” my mother teased. She was pitching me one of my father’s lines. His favorite thing to tell me even now is to never bite off more than I can chew. I have always had a big mouth, though.

“I did finish it, just didn’t win,” I replied with a grin, which caused her to laugh.

“And is this what I should tell your father?” she asked with a little smile.

“You can tell him. I’ll just beat him up if he has something to say about it,” I boasted. It was a lie, of course. If my mommy told my father, I would go into explaining the whole situation. He wouldn’t listen and we’d wrestle for the rest of the day with him making sure I figured out that I needed to stop losing fights.

The principal frowned. I’m guessing he didn’t approve of my mother apparently encouraging my behavior. He then went into explaining how my partner and I started a fight with the whole schoolyard. He even told my mother that I had a stick like my partner had and we wailed on everybody. I mean, what a lying prick! At that point, I stopped listening.

I busied myself by biting my fingernails and watching a girl that I now knew was a demon cry. I noticed my mother glance back once deep into the conversation. It turned out that the demon’s parents had entered the room. They went to her and she stopped crying immediately. I had never seen anyone go from bawling to dry-eyed in under a second. Hell, I couldn’t even do that when I was fake-crying.

“Well, Mrs. Toriyama, what do you think of that?” the fat man inquired after he finished talking and my mother hadn’t responded. He probably would have preferred that she remained silent.

“Oh, you mean you’re done spinning this extraordinary and fantastic tale where my little man and this pixie beat up the whole fucking schoolyard while being two feet tall standing on each other’s shoulders and weighing fifty pound together with bricks in their pockets?” my mother commented dryly. “That story’s done and over? You should’ve given us milk and cookies while telling it.”

I began to grin while the principal seemed rather offended by her words. My mother was not one for bullshit. She was also not the patient parent. She liked facts; the only place she accepted scenarios was at work, which would take too long to explain.

“Are you calling me a liar?” the principal growled.

“Sounds like an accurate enough term. You called me here to tell me some bullshit about two six-year-olds beating up the entire fucking schoolyard. In other words, you wasted my fucking time and their time. Why don’t you get off of your fat ass and go find out who kids beat these two up?” my mother suggested with a frown.

“Mrs. Toriyama,” the principal barked at her like she was a student.

“Watch your tone,” my mother warned him, pointing at him with a hard glare. Once again, she was not the patient parent and she was never a woman to anger. It led to very dark and bad places.

“Watch your language,” he countered.

“You don’t tell me what the fuck to do. I’m not one of your fucking students,” she replied. “Now, stop bullshitting me and do a job that doesn’t involve you shoving an entire birthday cake down your throat.” She pointed at him once again.

“Now see here,” he began and he started to rise from his chair.

My mother made a fist for a moment and he actually sat back down, as if he knew she could and would whip his ass should he try her. I thought I was about to be in for a show, even more so than what just happened. I mean, the principal did not know who my mother was. He might have thought he was messing with just some young, little colored woman, but if he kept it up, he would be in for the shock of his life. And then, my mother seemed to change her mind. Well, how dull and disappointing.

“Come on, little man. You and your friend don’t need to take this shit. My child’s coming home with cuts and bruises and shit while telling me kids are calling him a chink and you call me in here for this. Get the fuck out of here,” my mother mumbled and sucked her teeth. She was genuinely upset by the fact that the school had tried to make it out like the whole mess was our fault.

“Trin, you coming?” I asked as I climbed out of my chair. She was quiet. I thought that she might be in trouble for getting into a fight. My mother turned her attention to Trin’s parents.

“Don’t bother to listen to this marshmallow. Trust me, it isn’t worth it,” my mother informed the Possibles.

They seemed to take her word on it. We didn’t know it at the time, but they had a lot of experience with the fat fuck of a principal. Trin’s mother picked her up and they walked out of the office with me and my mother. Our parents inspected us to make sure we weren’t too injured. Once they were satisfied with us, they turned to each other to talk some things over. I didn’t pay too much attention.

We all got around to introducing ourselves, except for Trin. She was a very timid person back then. The Possibles then did something that I wasn’t used to; they didn’t look shocked when my mother told her their name. My mother’s name is Tashawna Toriyama. I even have trouble saying it with a straight face. It’s like an ethnic jumble. But, then again, I can’t tell people my whole name without laughing either, so I’m just a messed up mind more than likely.

“Oh, so, you’re the little boy that Trin talks about,” Mrs. Possible commented as she looked down at me and smiled. It was a very kind smile.

She talked about me? I was more than surprised by that news. I looked at Trin and noticed that she was blushing, so I figured it was true. Wow, she talked about me when she went home and from the smile on Mrs. Possible’s face, she must have said good things.

“Oh, Shin, this is the girl that you don’t shut up about?” my mother asked, causing me to blush. Great, now we both looked like tomatoes and idiots. Parents had to take embarrassment courses or something. “Hey, maybe she can come with us to the park tomorrow after school,” my mother suggested, looking at the Possibles.

“Trin, you want to go to the park tomorrow?” Mrs. Possible asked. She only nodded and just like that we had a play date. From then on, we were always together either with her parents or my mother watching us.

We continued to get beat up in school almost every day for a long while, but the principal never tried to sell our parents the story that we started it again. He hardly ever called our parents. I don’t think he liked my mother much, but then again, she wasn’t a fan of his either.

I’ve never been scared of Trin again, even though I had seen the demon in her. But, I’m secretly proud of being the reason the demon came out. She didn’t know she had a devil in her until I showed up. She called it out to help me before anyone else. I have always taken it as an honor, but I don’t want that harpy to know. 

-8-8-8-8-

Next time: Shin has a Possible Christmas. We should get to see Kim getting in trouble with the duo by then. 

-8-8-8-8-

A/N: do you like it switching POVs like that? 


	4. Shin and Trin’s Christmas special

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own these characters, except for Trin, Shin, Tatsu, and Shin’s parents. Everybody else belongs to Disney. I also don’t own Jim Kelly, Enter the Dragon, Edgar Allen Poe, the Black Cat, or the Tell-Tale heart. Man, there is a lot of stuff I don’t own.

4: Shin and Trin’s Christmas special

(Shin)

I had never celebrated Christmas until I met Trin. My parents were never very religious in any sense. They also always believed they brought me enough junk through out the year, so they didn’t need a special day to spoil me even more than I already was. Yet, as soon as my mother noticed that Trin’s parents treated Christmas like an extra-special holiday, she had no problem with buying me, Trin, and Kim a mountain of gifts for the day. I know she just liked the fact that I had a best friend, an only friend actually, who came equipped with her own little sidekick.

I met Kim soon after Trin and I became friends. I liked her from the moment I met her, but I’ve come to believe that she is just impossible to hate. It is a must to like Kim, especially when she was little because she was so cute. She was like a living, breathing, walking puppy-dog pout. You just had to give into her every desire.

The Christmas break was to be my first time spending more than a weekend with Trin and her family. We used to spend the night at each other’s houses all the time. Our parents wanted us to be very close friends since we couldn’t seem to make more than the one friend. We didn’t really need the encouragement, but it was nice. The plan at that time was for me to stay the whole week with the Possibles while my parents “handled some business.”

Even though I was a little mama’s boy, I was far from scared being parted with my mother for a whole week. The Possibles were like my second family by that point, maybe even like my first family. I eventually got around to calling them my aunt and uncle, but I’m not sure if it was at the time of my week-long visit. Trin eventually started calling my parents her aunt and uncle, too, but like I said, I’m not sure if it was at this time. We had known each other for a couple of years, so it might have been by then, but I doubt it.

The point being that I was just looking forward to spending the whole week with Trin and her sidekick, getting them into all kinds of stuff. I wondered if I could talk her mother into taking us to watch some open surgery at the hospital while I was there. Trin and I had a developed a fondness for the sight of blood having seen so much of our own and by that time, actually having spilled enough to be proud.

My mother yanked me out of the car with all of the care of a doll when we got to the house. She then pulled out my suitcase and a huge bag full of gifts; like I said, she always gave me, Trin, and Kim a mountain of gifts. I charged the door and knocked like a lunatic on a sugar high, which I might have been at the time. I grinned as the door opened and slipped in right by Mr. Possible’s leg. I heard him laugh.

“That’s a really energetic boy you got there, Tashawna,” he said to my mother.

“I know. Maybe I should stop giving him coffee,” she joked. She never gave me coffee out of fear it would literally have me bouncing off the walls. “I hope he doesn’t drive all completely bonkers,” she told him.

I turned to grin at my mother as if saying I would never do such a thing and she told me to be on my best behavior the second she noticed my expression. She then turned back to Mr. Possible to tell him when she should be back and talk some business-like things that I could give less than a damn about. I just wanted to see my best friend and Mr. Possible knew that, which explained why he called his daughters downstairs a minute after I showed up.

Trin came charging from her room, I guess anyway, with her sister hitching a ride on her back. She wasn’t so small anymore. She wasn’t so pathetic anymore. She got her weight and strength up enough to where she could easily carry her five-year-old sidekick around on her back almost all day long. Kim giggled as her big sister practically flew down the stairs and they went straight for my mother. I had been played! They didn’t even see me!

They hugged and greeted my mother with enthusiastic grins, begging her to stay for Christmas. She smiled down at them, gently rubbed their heads like she often did with me, and informed them that she had business to take care of, but she really wished that she could stay. She handed my things over to Mr. Possible, kissed all of us little kids goodbye, and then went to take care of her business. For a brief moment, I wondered if my mother was going to meet up with my father while they were away and then I stopped thinking about that as the sisters, finally noticing me, dragged me off to see their baby sister.

They didn’t really have a baby sister. Their mother was pregnant and Kim swore to the high heavens that they were going to have a baby sister. I imagine Kim really wouldn’t have wanted a baby sister, but she didn’t know it. She probably figured since having a big sister was awesome, then it would be equally awesome to have a little sister, especially since Trin adored her. Trin wouldn’t have been able to pay another sister and Kim the same amount of attention that she showered Kim with for her entire life.

I really think that Trin was happy with the twins, even though she seemed to want a sister just like Kim. She spoiled and continues to spoil her brothers, but it has always been in a different way from Kim, so it was possible for her to spoil all of them. Another sister would have thrown her game off.

After spending ample time watching the sisters rub their mother’s huge belly – I believe she was overdue by that time – and talk to and about their “sister,” I noticed their grandmother, who scowled at me. Oh, that old bat hates me even to this day. Everything I have ever done with her around seemed to just rub her the wrong way. I am certain that I helped her in disliking Trin because of the way we acted together.

I actually don’t know what I did to first offend the old woman, but I don’t even think it was me. I think my parents started her loathing of me long before she noticed my mischievous nature. I think she disliked that my mother had me at such a young age and I don’t think she believes that my parents are really married to this day. She’s a rather old fashion coot when it comes to a lot of things, which is just weird considering she raised a really cool, open-minded guy in Mr. Possible.

She also had the idea in her head that my father was a deadbeat dad because she had never met him. She had, of course, only seen me a few times prior to that date, so I don’t know what was up with her and meeting my father. Besides, my father’s skills as a parent are much like Jim Kelly’s fighting style in Enter the Dragon, namely “ ‘…unorthodox.’ ‘But, effective’.”

Anyway, I was accustomed to grandparents not liking me long before I met Nana Possible. Mine hate me something terrible just for being born. They still don’t approve of my parents being together and all four of them deny my very existence. My father’s parents hate my mother and my mother’s parents hate my father. They all meet in the middle and hate me. It’s one monster ball of hate that me and my parents avoid and ignore.

Since my grandparents hate me, I quickly picked up on the fact that Trin’s grandmother disliked her. I remember when I first met the old bag and Trin had introduced her as Kim’s nana. It was weird. It didn’t take me long to figure out why she would say that and I had only been six. But, I still hadn’t figured out why the woman hated my best friend so much. From the way that she refused to use Trin’s name or address Trin personally, it seemed to me now that she just held animosity toward Trin for being adopted. I doubt I will ever understand how that works. Maybe she didn’t see Trin as a “real Possible.” I don’t know, but I do know that the more Trin did, the more that woman got a valid reason to dislike her, so eventually things made sense. But that took years, so who the hell knows what started it.

Well, I had been in the house for fifteen minutes and hadn’t broken anything, which meant I was bored. We needed to do something fun and fun for me meant doing something against the rules in someway or just downright dangerous, like trying to do back flips off of the dining room table. Actually, that killed two birds with one stone since it was both dangerous and against the rules.

I turned to Trin and she seemed to read my mind by shaking her head, disapproving and objecting to my scheme before she even knew what it was. The little harpy! Actually, she was still something of a coward, especially when it came to her parents. I didn’t know what her problem was at the time, but I eventually grew to understand once I heard how she had come to be in her parents’ care. She was scared of being sent away. But, I always had a different belief in life from the one she held. While she didn’t want to bother her parents, I felt that we should never be bored. Besides, I thought there was no way in Hell the Possibles could send Trin away. She was their daughter. Duh. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Trin)

Shin had a brilliant idea, and by brilliant I mean troublemaking. He wanted to eat the cookies on the kitchen counter that my mother had specifically said was for Santa. Now, Kim was the only one out of us who believed in Santa at the time, so Shin knew good and well that the cookies would just sit there all night. He didn’t see the point of good cookies going to waste, which I could understand, but my mother told us not to touch them. So, we shouldn’t touch them. End of discussion, except with Shin.

Shin eventually dressed things up to the point where he made it seem like a crime for us to leave those cookies there. Kim was all for the idea by the end of his little speech because she was pretty much all for anything Shin or I suggested when she was a kid. Shin liked to abuse that power to get her to do crazy things when I turned my head for just a second all of the time.

Shin had plenty of bad Christmas ideas and he had only celebrated two before that one, so you can just imagine what the next twelve were like with him. He had talked us into opening our presents early twice already. He had gotten us to eat a gingerbread house that we “helped” our mother make; it was really hard to call what Kim and I did in the baking project help. He had us eat all of the candy canes off of the tree once. We then got sick from all the candy. There is nothing worse than being sick on Christmas Eve. He was just full of rotten ideas, but I hadn’t developed enough of a backbone yet to call him an idiot. I wasn’t too far off with the way he liked to act, though.

After much whining on both of their parts, I agreed to be the lookout while he and Kim would carry out the actual crime. Hey, I like cookies, always have and always will. I also didn’t trust either of them to be the lookout. Kim was only five, after all, and Shin never was reliable.

Shin had Kim on his shoulders as they tried to find the cookies on the counter. They weren’t working very quickly, a bad habit of that best friend of mine and also the reason that we got busted the last time Shin had a great idea try some eggnog last Christmas. My parents never put much alcohol in their eggnog, but they put enough in there for us to feel it and for us to get in trouble. Shin was so close to getting a beating for that, but his mother was always more bark than bite when it came to her baby boy and eventually when it came to me and my sister.

Kim giggled as she obtained the goods. It didn’t seem to bother her at all that she was stealing Santa’s cookies. She then told Shin that he could put her down. She dropped some of the gingersnaps that were on the plate as he tried to put her safely on the floor. I yelled at him as he accidentally dropped my sister on the kitchen tiles. He didn’t appreciate my hollering at him for what was clearly an accident, so he shouted back. Kim ate a cookie. She didn’t care that she had been dropped.

Our noise quickly attracted my parents to the scene and they noticed the cookie mess on the floor. My father reprimanded us while my mother went to clean up the mess to stop Kim from eating the cookies that were on the floor. I quickly moved to assist my mother pick up the cookies and quietly apologized dozens of times, hoping to get out of trouble for my poor behavior. My mother tried to assure me that it was all right and I’m certain that it was, but at the time, I didn’t think it was all right.

Nana Possible started going on about how Shin and I were spoiled little brats, always getting into trouble. She told my father that we should be punished and I froze in terror for a moment. I was scared that we would be punished and my fear always had been that my parents, despite the fact that they were very good people, would do something terrible to me because I wasn’t really a person.

My father wasn’t listening, though. He picked Kim up to get her to stop eating all of the cookies that were on the floor. She was gobbling them down like they were fresh from the oven. He told Shin and me to take Kim upstairs and play up there. Shin was always getting us sent upstairs.

We weren’t allowed back down until it was time for dinner. Shin behaved himself at the table for once. He usually spent his time trying to get Kim to spurt milk out of her nose or he made stupid faces at me, but it seemed the Christmas Eve dinner was so good that he had to focus on that. He was such a little butterball. Well, I have to admit that the food was very good.

My mother never cooked too often. She is a very busy neurosurgeon, after all. But, when she does cook, the meals are, as Kim would say, spanking. She probably would have made a spectacular housewife, but I am very glad she did not travel down that road because she was the one that inspired me to go into science. She’s my hero and I’m sure she knows it.

The rest of the night was normal, as normal as Shin would allow it to be anyway. My parents didn’t seem to be too upset with his monkey-like behavior. They were used to his outlandish antics, so he wasn’t really too much for them. Besides, he was always easily intimidated when it came to my parents or his own. He knew what was going too far and always seemed to avoid it.

Early Christmas morning came quickly. When I say early, I’m talking like two in the morning when kids should be dreaming about what was waiting for them under the tree. I was woken up from such a dream as Shin came into my room with Kim and had the brilliant idea of opening our gifts early yet again. I protested to the plan, recalling how vexed my parents had been the last time that we had done that. I also recollected the look of contempt that Nana gave me and it had frightened me to the very core of my tiny being. I was so scared I thought I’d be kicked out for such dreadful behavior from that look alone. Damn Shin and his brilliant ideas.

I talked them out of going to open the gifts by offering to read Kim a story. I held up one of my books on Greek mythology and Kim was hooked. For a long time, she was in love with Greek myths and I had a large collection to choose from. Shin wasn’t happy about being thwarted, but I was slowly learning that sometimes I had to save that nut from himself.

We opened our gifts at the right time that Christmas, which was when my parents wanted us to. They sat on the sofa with my mother merrily snapped pictures of us as we went through everything. We got plenty of cool things, like we did every Christmas before and after that one. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Shin)

We got plenty of great things, as always. Trin’s dad got us both these advanced chemistry sets and the three of us later blew the garage up. I liked to think Trin and I helped prepare him for when the twins came along because we were always good for blowing something up. More often than not, he was right there with us.

Trin then delighted over one of the gifts my mother bought her, the complete works of Edgar Allen Poe. She was always a morbid little cow. Her eyes brightened the second she opened the book and then excitedly informed Kim that she was going to read her a story called “the Black Cat” later that night. Kim grinned; her favorite story at the time happened to be “the Tell-Tale Heart.” I could tell by the look on their grandmother’s face she was disappointed in the gift, the idea, and the fact that Kim was all for it. Strange, considering most adults would just be happy a kid wanted to read.

My mother knew Trin well and knew that she was a very big fan of Poe. Now, since Trin was a fan, Kim was a fan by default. Trin read to Kim every chance that she got and their mother encouraged the activity by always suggesting it when the girls were getting in the way or were bored or something. I’d like to think it was a good to encourage for so many reasons, but I don’t think their grandmother agreed or so the sour look on her face suggested.

Their grandmother really didn’t approve and it was probably because the plan and the book were not “girly.” Trin never really did do “girly,” even her style of dress was always more her than girlish. The fact that she didn’t do “girly” was probably one of the reasons her grandmother didn’t like her. I’ve always liked that Trin was not girly. Even when she started liking pink, she still wasn’t girly about it. In fact, she was always a bit creepy. Any eight-year-old that liked Poe and could make her little sister happy to hear any of the tales written by the man had to be creepy.

The best gifts came from my father. He always gave the best gifts because he failed to take into account that we were children. He put one of the greatest gifts for me and Trin in the same box, undoubtedly to save time. The man was good for cutting corners to move on to the next thing, which is possibly genetic. We watched Kim open her gift first to get an idea as to what he got us. Kim pulled out a shinai(1) from her box and I knew right away she was going to be a monster with that thing. Trin and I eagerly ripped into our box after that.

We each got a bokken(2). They were long, too, like a katana. I wasted no time attacking Trin because I knew that was what my father wanted. He always said “I give you and Trin things for one of you to kill the other and save me some money.”

“Only Shin,” I heard Trin’s mom sigh while her dad stopped her counterattack.

“Shin, you know better than to hit girls,” Mr. Possible scolded me, all the while holding Trin back.

“My papa said it’s okay,” I replied. My father and Mr. Possible always gave out conflicting information, especially when it came to Trin. It was enough to hurt a little eight-year-old’s brain.

“Your papa was probably joking,” Mrs. Possible told me.

I scratched my head in confusion. I knew my father wasn’t joking when he told me it was okay to hit girls and he also told me to go after Trin whenever I got the chance, which may have been a joke, but who knows with that guy. But, I was so weak for these Possible women that whenever one of them said something, I had to take it into consideration. Now for that to happen the Possible female needs to have both blue eyes and red hair, not either/or. Anyway, I decided to stop my attack on Trin and dive back into opening gifts. Nothing topped the bokken, of course. My father is the man and that is a fact. He even proved it after the bokken gift because the phone rang.

“Shin, it’s for you,” Mr. Possible informed me and he handed me the phone.

I answered and it was my papa. I grinned from ear to ear, which alerted Trin immediately that it was my father on the phone. She charged me and stated yelling hello to him into the receiver. He laughed. I know he was picturing me struggling with Trin, trying to get her to not take the phone from me. She and I ended up both speaking into the phone in Japanese. My father used to like to pretend that he didn’t speak English to help us get better at other languages.

At the time, I was already fluent in English and Japanese, but Trin needed the practice. He taught us Cantonese, too, so thanks to him, I’m trilingual. Trin, being an overachiever even by Possible standards, speaks ten languages to date, so she would be like deca-lingual or something, I suppose. I blame my mother for that monster.

Anyway, my father made casual conversation with the pair of us for a while. It wasn’t like he had much to discuss with two eight-year-olds. He did want to know what we had done with the gifts and then he wanted to know why we hadn’t killed each other yet, of course.

Once he was done with us, he requested to speak with Kim. He obviously told her something devilish because once she got off of the phone with him, she whacked me with her shinai. I went after her with my bokken and ran right into Trin. The harpy proceeded to give me the business until her mother stopped her.

It was a good thing her mother stepped in when she did because I was just about to whip Trin’s ass. I mean it. I was about to get at her. Look, Shinichi Toriyama never gets beat up by a harpy… often anyway. Trust me, I would’ve beat her ass, so she should thank her mother for interfering.

“That boy is wild,” Nana Possible commented, referring to me of course. She thought that I was like a Tasmanian devil and she didn’t think that Trin was much better from the way the girl had come at me. Nobody messed with Kim when Trin was around. Nobody.

Trin actually once attacked my father because he pushed Kim. He was just playing with her, of course. He always played rough, but Trin was always serious when it came to baby sis, especially when they were little. She bit my father in the meat of his hand. She drew blood and everything. He laughed the wound off and stated that he was “going to have to teach that kid some martial arts.” That was how we started learning all sorts of styles, all because Trin bit my father in his hand to the point where he needed stitches. Before that, Trin had gone to the mall for corny classes and I was content to just copy movies.

For the rest of the week, we just played with all of the stuff that we got for Christmas. Well, the good stuff anyway. A couple of the gifts were clothes and no little kid wants clothes for a gift. Kim had it the worst because that was all Nana Possible gave her. Of course, her nana didn’t give me or Trin anything. I still think that we got the better end of the deal; who wanted that shit anyway? Also, Kim spent a lot of time whacking me with her shinai. To this day, I wonder what the hell my father told her.

Our Christmas surprise wasn’t complete with the passing of the day. On the day that I was supposed to go home, my mother came to get me as expected, but she had someone with her. My father had come home with her. They were both sporting a couple of bandages. When we asked what happened, they both smiled and said “work related” and that was all they would say on the bandages. My father then offered to take everyone out for dinner to celebrate the New Year. He also wanted to know why Trin and I were still alive.

“Obviously, next year I just need to buy you two a katana each,” my father commented, speaking to me and my best friend.

“Shin, don’t you dare,” my mother and the Possibles yelled at him. 

My papa only smiled. He didn’t get us those katanas next Christmas, but we eventually did get a pair. Like I said, my papa always got us the best gifts. He just never seemed to realize we were little kids. 

-8-8-8-8- 

1: A shinai is a sword made from bamboo tied together that is used when practicing kendo. 

2: A bokken is a wooden Japanese sword usually used for practicing. 

Next time: Kim gets into the act by adding in when she joined the pair at elementary school. They were fourth graders and she was in first grade and the best friends were starting to look something like they do when they get older, crazy.


	5. Yesterday’s lessons

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own these characters, except for Trin, Shin, and Tatsu. Everyone else belongs to Disney. I also don’t own John Steinbeck and believe me, I wouldn’t want to. I don’t own the Plague either. Is there a copyright on the Plague?

5: Yesterday’s lessons

(Kim)

When I first started school, I thought that it would be great. I mean, I would get to spend the whole day with Trin and Shin along with Ron. What could be better than that? Nothing that I could think of, especially since Ron hadn’t given into all of the bad things people said about Trin yet.

But, I failed to take into account that Trin and Shin were fourth graders and I was just going to be in the first grade, so I wouldn’t be able to spend the entire day with them. I would get to see them at recess, though, which wasn’t nearly as good as being able to be with them for the entire day. To make matters worse, Ron was in a different class than I was.

School wasn’t anything like what I expected it to be. I hated it for the most part. Aside from everything I just named, the lessons were also so slow. I already knew everything we were learning in class. Hey, my parents are a rocket scientist and a brain surgeon, not to mention my sister thought she was like Da Vinci reincarnated with the way that she soaked up knowledge. So, I had no choice in being advanced. So, school was very boring from the educational standpoint.

School was weird, too, because it was there I learned there was more to Trin than what I was used to. I was used to the quiet girl that read me almost every night or gave me half her snacks while we watched cartoons or let me win at board games. I was used to a slightly warmer Trin, which was before she considered hugging a crime against humanity. I was used to having my super big sister that was great at everything and treated me like I was greatest gift she could ever receive. At school, people told me things about her, terrible things, and that included teachers.

Kids I could ignore. I mean, if a person didn’t know who John Steinbeck was didn’t have my respect; yes, Ron knew who Steinbeck was because Trin used to read to him too before he started acting like she had the Plague. I just didn’t trust anyone to tell me about my sister because I knew her better than anyone. So, they could go ahead and say what they wanted, but I didn’t buy it. Well, at first they could do that. Eventually, it got on my nerves.

My teacher in particular had a thing against my sister. I don’t know what she had against her even now, but I know that she didn’t like Trin. The first few days of school, she noticed that I had the same last name and she wanted to know if I was related to Trin. I grinned widely and proudly declared that Trin was my big sister. The woman appeared absolutely shocked by my words. I don’t know why she was stunned, but it could have been for a number of reasons.

There was the chance that she was stunned at how proud I was to have a sister, which could have just been chalked up to little kid awkwardness. It could have been that she was shocked because I considered Trin my sister. It could have been that she was surprised that I was related to Trin, point blank. I really don’t know and I really don’t care.

After finding out that I was Trin’s sister, the teacher started up with all kinds of crap, talking about my sister. It seemed that the thing that bothered her the most was that Trin was a know-it-all. I don’t see the problem with a child having an intellect and exercising it. I know for a fact that back then, Trin wasn’t nearly as obnoxious about her mind as she is now. She was practically humble back then. So, my teacher was more than likely, as Trin would say, a hater. She just hated that my sister was a very smart kid.

Most of the other things that she went into, I just didn’t understand. Hey, I was a very naïve and good-natured six-year-old. So, a lot of the things the woman said went over my head and I just erased them from my memory. I do remember her telling me that Trin wasn’t really my sister, but for the life of me, I didn’t comprehend how that was plausible. Trin was my sister and that was the end of the discussion in my head. It was like someone telling me that my parents weren’t my parents or that the tweebs weren’t my brothers. There was nothing to argue as far as I was concerned. It was just a stupid statement. The teacher tried to make it a big thing for some reason, though.

She actually had the nerve to tell me about how my parents found Trin and that was why she was in my house. I didn’t really believe her. I believed that my mother had Trin just like she had me and the tweebs. I didn’t know any better.

“You shouldn’t tell her things like that,” Trin said in a low and rather creepy voice one day when the teacher was running things down for me. She stood in the doorway of my classroom. Everyone else had left to go outside for recess, but the teacher had asked me to stay behind for a moment.

“Sis!” I cheered and ran over to her. I easily put everything my teacher said right out of my mind the moment. I saw Trin. The sight of her always just brightened my day from the start as far as I know.

“Come on, I had Shin save you a swing,” Trin informed me, putting an arm around my shoulder. See, my sister was always the best.

“You’ll push me, right?” I asked with a grin.

“Right,” she agreed. She always pushed me on the swings. She also always had Shin save me a swing because I really liked the swings.

“Really high?” I asked.

“As high as you want,” she replied.

I walked off with Trin and noticed that she gave my teacher a lingering look. My teacher didn’t seem affected by it, but she should have been. Trin wasn’t the docile little creature that she had once been. Bitterness had built in her system from years of bullying and the four adults around her that cared, namely our parents and Shin’s parents, had instilled confidence in her. Trin was beginning to figure that she didn’t need to take everyone’s crap because she was much more than some little trinket.

I wasn’t supposed to see how Trin got back at my teacher for all of the despicable things that she had said. It was a darker side to my sister that I would see more often. I actually helped create some of it by getting into things and Trin would come to bail me out or just didn’t want me to do something I might regret. But, it was starting to manifest itself now and she tried to hide it from me.

She had been fighting with kids more often, doing some things to kids to show them they should stop messing with her. But, she was now starting on adults. She wasn’t taking anything from anybody whose last name wasn’t Possible or Toriyama. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Trin) 

I stood in front of that cow’s car with my bokken clutched tightly in my grip. That dumb bitch, how dare she try to lower my sister’s opinion of me! How dare she tell Kim that I wasn’t her real sister! How dare she speak as if she was better than I was! The bitch.

Oh, she had to be taught a lesson. I wasn’t the same Trin Possible that sat quietly in her class three years earlier while students poured glue in my hair or spat paper at me. I wasn’t the same girl that she could look at callously as if it was a sin for me to be adopted. I wasn’t the cowering child who she could describe ‘trailer trash’ while I was right there in the room. I was definitely not that frightened little girl anymore. I was something new, something malicious. Hell, I might have been a demon at that time.

I took my bokken to that bitch’s car with more anger than any nine-year-old should ever possess. I worked on it for a couple of minutes before Shin joined in. He had been standing behind me. I guess I made it just look too good. Actually, he just wanted revenge, too.

Shin wanted revenge for every time that she told him “you people are good at math.” He wanted revenge for every time that she asked him what part of China he was from, for every time she wanted to know why he never had egg rolls for lunch, for every time that she asked him to show her how to use chopsticks, and for every fucking time that she wanted to know if he was related to the people that ran a Chinese restaurant in the damn mall. As one could imagine, he had a lot of pinned up frustration.

We were both silent as we trashed her car with strength that children shouldn’t have. Shin’s father trained us very, very hard. I doubt I could make someone understand how hard that man trained us. He always said “students of mine need to be the best or need to be gone.” It was a bit impossible for his son to be gone and I was attached to Shin like we were stitched together, so we had little choice in being the best.

Shin and I got too caught up in our dance with that heifer’s car to say anything to each other. I was pretty much yelling my obscenities in my head and I’m sure he was doing the same, so we didn’t disturb each other. We beat that car like it was the last thing that we would ever do. We truly detested that whore.

When it was all said and done and her car looked like it had been shot up, we stood there and waited for her. We wanted her to know who it was that took the time and effort from their day to torment her so perfectly. It didn’t take long and the look on her face was priceless. I didn’t show it, but oh my, I was so fucking satisfied with our work that I wanted to do it again. Why didn’t she have two cars?

She looked at us and the stupid bitch actually wanted to know why we would do such a thing. I could only wonder why we never thought to do it before. It was such a brilliant idea. I still think it was brilliant.

Shin and I stared at the female jackass. A woman who swore to the heavens that Shin was a complete Chinese stereotype and I was an unwanted waif actually wanted to know why we would do something like what we did. She lucked out in my opinion. We should’ve done more, like covered her in pig’s blood or something.

Shin and I stared at her as she fell to the ground. Shin took another whack at her car just to show her that she needed to learn to watch her tongue. She started crying once he dinged it. We looked at each other when she started weeping and he smirked for the both of us. It was even more satisfying and then Shin made it even better. He went into his pocket and flung some loose change at her, hitting her in the head.

“Learn to take the fucking bus,” Shin told her and then we walked off. This was a very good day’s work, in our shared opinion. That bitch made sure to watch what she said after that.

Had I known then that Kim had been watching, I would’ve behaved differently, of course. Even at my worse, I never wanted Kim to know that I had demons inside of me and, most of the time, I just let the demons do their thing. I don’t hate to say it, but I don’t feel remorse like regular people do. If someone hurts me, I hurt them back, preferably worse. To me, they’re asking for it. I didn’t want Kim to be that way because I do know right from wrong and I know that most of the time what I do isn’t right. I won’t say it’s wrong, but it isn’t right.

I never wanted my little sister to be like me, some creature that could barely smile unless some jackass’ bleeding and I made it happen. I never wanted her to answer misery with misery. I never even want her to know misery. How I live is no way to live and I always wanted to set a good example because that was what my parents wanted and I always knew that was what a good big sister would do. It is hard to set a good example with redheaded pixies spying on your evil deeds.

Believe it or not, I never wanted to hurt someone that didn’t hurt me. I never went out of my way to kick someone down a flight of stairs or anything, but that isn’t something to brag about. But, if I was left alone for the most part, many people wouldn’t need fake teeth or to have their friends sign their casts. I will never understand why the world refused to leave me alone, though. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Kim)

I had a feeling that Trin didn’t want me around when she and Shin seemed to lose control of themselves. Well, I shouldn’t say lose control of themselves because I know that they’re always aware of what they’re doing. They just didn’t seem to care as long as no one that mattered saw them do it.

As much as Trin tried to control herself around me and she acted like a quiet angel, sometimes she slipped up while I was standing right there. Sometimes it was necessary for her to slip up and, even though I was little, I understood. So, when she slipped up and it was necessary, she started looking like a superhero to me.

Trin never came out of nowhere when she was fighting. There was always a reason behind it. Like one time, there were these big kids that were pushing me around. I think it was because people used to push Trin around and they looked at me like a replacement. Stupid move. After all, there was a reason they couldn’t push Trin around anymore.

Now, I tried fighting those kids back because I wasn’t the average first grader. I was somewhat trained in martial arts. Shin’s father was teaching me right along with Shin and Trin. He actually liked making us work harder by making us ashamed of ourselves in someway or, in my case, just saying if I wanted to be like Shin and Trin, then I needed to train just as hard as them. He used to make Shin train harder by making fun of him when Trin beat him up. He made Trin work harder by telling her that I was a natural and I’d be able to kick her butt in a little while. He was so good at manipulating us into working on everything very hard.

Well, anyway, the big kids were about to rough me up. There were like six boys and one of me. Trin charged in as soon as I hit the ground from a boy pushing me down. She kicked that kid so badly I thought I was watching a cartoon. He groaned and fell over right away. Shin came in behind her and punched another boy. They couldn’t have handled all six kids, yet. They weren’t that good, but the kids didn’t know that.

The way Trin and Shin presented themselves after their explosive entrance was the key to winning the battle and it is still one of their major weapons. They just look like they could and would kill the whole world. I use this, too, now. It isn’t as much of a bluff anymore now as it was then, as in they might actually be able to kill the whole world. I’m not sure and I hope to never find out.

“Anybody else looking to hit my little sister?” Trin inquired with a strange sort of frown on her face. It was almost like she was smirking, but she was frowning.

The bullies ran off as if they were on fire. Trin and Shin, my heroes. My sister saved me a lot of the time when I got into it with groups of people, especially when I argued with them. It never registered to me that those kids could do unspeakable things to me and probably would since many of them had either done such things or witnessed such things done to my sister. Thanks to Trin, I never came home with bruises like she used. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Trin)

I wished that somebody would ever try to touch my sister the way that they used to do to me. I probably would’ve murdered one of those kids at the time, probably in an extremely painful way, too. Sure, I might not have been able to take down a whole group of punks yet, but I damn sure could handle one or two. If they wanted to be stupid, which they didn’t, they would have tried to tie my little sister to a flag pole and they would’ve ended up in comas. Or, at least, I’d like to think that on some occasions.

But, Kim being my leash, probably would’ve halted things before they got that far. She would’ve seen me hurting someone too much and she would’ve started crying for me to stop or something. I can’t be responsible when my sister cries. It hurts me way too much, so I always stop. I always want to be a good sister. I swear I do.

But, I never wanted anyone to hurt her, so it was hard to be the good example I always wanted to be, especially at school. I knew I wasn’t the best sister when Kim started getting into fights, causing fights. She and some random kid might be arguing, usually, over something he said about me, and she would throw the first punch. The first time I saw that I swear the first thought in my head was “what the fuck?” and then I jumped in because I didn’t want her to get in trouble. It didn’t happen often, but it happened more times than I liked. Always by the time a teacher came over, I was working the brat over and Shin had pulled Kim away from the scene. Sometimes, we changed roles because Shin wanted to work the kid over. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Shin)

You know, at the time, when Trin was jumping in to fights, I thought that she was just trying to protect Kim physically. It made sense to me at the time. But, I wasn’t heavy on thinking outside the box at the time. I was always a data cruncher, which might explain why I always hated English class; too much abstract thinking.

Anyway, there was more to it than protecting Kim physically. It was making sure that she didn’t go out of her fucking mind like we did. I think I can understand that, but I don’t think we’re so bad, now anyway. What I do know, I liked coming to the rescue with Trin. I also like practicing my fighting while knowing I would never get in trouble for it.

We did get into a lot of fights that first year Kim was in school, though. It bothered our parents a bit. They had come to believe that it was never our faults now after all the grief we went through before we could fight back. So, they threw us in a private school for the fifth grade, thinking it was safer for us to be there than at public school. Such an adventure there. I had no idea that you could be kicked out of a school in a month.

Apparently teachers don’t like being cursed out in three languages, especially if they speak two of them. Yes, we had a teacher that could speak Cantonese. We barked some very distasteful things at her for making an offhanded comment about my parents. We could’ve let it go. It wasn’t the worst thing a person could’ve said, but we don’t operate like that. We stopped taking shit from people the moment we realized that we didn’t have to take it and people didn’t seem to like that. Well, as we told the private school staff when we were leaving, fuck them. We’re people too and we deserve just as much respect as the next person.

Cursing at the teachers weren’t the only reason we got kicked out. Our usual problems followed us there. Kids just didn’t seem to believe in leaving us alone and maybe our tempers were a little short by then, but still. If no one bothered us, Trin would gladly sit quietly and read and I would scheme a way to nearly get me and her killed without hurting anyone else. But, Middleton seemed to be a small town because they knew that we were the outcasts. They always knew we were the outcasts. 

-8-8-8-8-

Next time: Trin and Shin discover their homosexuality together, in more than one way. Not to mention Shin tells his parents.


	6. Mid-school infraction

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own these characters, except for Trin, Shin, Shin’s parents, and Tatsu. Everybody else goes to Disney.

6: Mid-school infraction

(Shin) 

I have always wondered how many people get the chance to discover that they’re homosexual along with their best friend. I don’t suppose I’d really be in that group, but I do think about it. I’m fairly certain that Trin always knew what she was, even though she liked to pretend otherwise. She has always been alert in a sense as to what is going on in her mind. I will admit that I sometimes miss things that aren’t spelled out right in front of me. She is the abstract one most of the time.

Anyway, it all started in junior high. I think we were about thirteen or something like that. It was around the time when every guy was suddenly proud that his girlfriend had a piece of an ass and a half of a tit. In other words, the girls were curving out and most of the guys were noticing. I say most because I wasn’t noticing. It may have had something to do with the fact that I didn’t pay attention to most people, girls included. I went to school with nimrods, so I didn’t see why I had to pay them any mind.

Every now and then I did come out of my little world and over hear some things that my fellow classmates were going on about, including crap about their girlfriends. To be real, I was a bit surprised to hear some of the things. I didn’t know girls acted like that at first, but then again I only knew two girls who were and still are abnormal at best. The guys talked about groping their girlfriends, or getting their girlfriends to go down on them, or a couple of guys talked about going down on their girls. After a while, I began to get curious because I failed to see the big deal, yet so many people were acting differently.

I wanted to know several things and at the top of my list was why were those losers getting laid and I wasn’t. It wasn’t even that I wanted to get laid at that point. I just wanted to know why they all had girls and things like that because they weren’t cool or smart or good-looking in some cases. I was always all three of those. I should’ve been getting laid left and right.

It didn’t take me long to realize why I wasn’t getting laid. I wasn’t trying to do that and that was because I wasn’t interested in trying. I wondered if it was weird of me to not be interested in girls. I mean, I knew how puberty worked and everything, but I just wasn’t interested in anything new.

I talked to my father about it, asking him if it was strange for me to not be interested in girls or in dating or anything like that. He slapped me in the back of the head and told me that everyone goes at their own rate and I needed to stop worrying about stupid things. I took his word on it because he was smarter than I was when it came to those sorts of things. But, I was still curious about other things.

I was curious as to why guys were so interested in sex. I decided to do some research, even though I’m more into hands-on experimenting and I always have been. I watched some porno movies, but that didn’t give me any answers. I actually got more questions after that. I started wondering if it was as good as the movies and people made it seem. I also wondered if it was as gross as it looked because, well, some things in porn look really gross. So, was it good or was it gross? I figured that there was one way to find out. Hey, what were best friends for, after all?

I waited until she and I were alone. We were in her room when the time came. Our parents typically left us alone because they trusted us, I’m guessing anyway. They might’ve just trusted Trin. She was a responsible little wench back then. Still is now, now that I think about it. They probably believed that she wouldn’t let me do anything if I tried. I didn’t think that at all.

“Hey, Trin,” I said out of the blue. I was watching television. I think the show was about astronomy or something like that.

“Yeah?” she replied. She was lounging on her bed, reading some book. The girl was always reading. She was a serious bookworm. Still is now that I think about it.

“Let’s have sex,” I suggested casually, putting the TV on mute. Obviously, I wasn’t a romantic. I’ve always made it a point to talk as if everything is just as trivial as the weather. It throws people off and that’s always fun.

“Right now?” she asked as if I had just requested we go practice our kendo. She not only had a way and still does of never seeming shocked no matter how out of the blue something is, but she also makes it a point to sound as bored with it as possible.

“Yeah. We’ll be alone for a while, so it’s cool,” I pointed out.

“I suppose,” she answered with a light shrug.

She was so cool about it. If I wasn’t used to her, I might have been worried. I didn’t even think to turn the television off after she answered. It wasn’t because I was surprised by her answer, but because I wanted to get right to it. I’d finally see what was so great about sex.

I went to her side, kneeling by her. She put her book down and took her glasses off. She looked at me and I must admit that while I wasn’t a romantic, she didn’t know a thing about looking sexy at the time. I didn’t care about that, which probably should have been a clue right there.

I leaned in and kissed her on her exceptionally soft lips. She and I shared our first kiss at that moment. It was nice to have that moment together. It was also a very good kiss, as far as closed-mouth kisses went anyway. She seemed to be a natural at kissing. 

-8-8-8-8- 

(Trin) 

I know he was stuck on the fact that I was a good kisser. I don’t know where the skill came from since he was the first person that I kissed. I merely chalk it up to the fact that I’m perfect and always have been. It was the only way that I could explain it.

Shin was surprisingly delicious. His mouth was sweet, much like a pastry. I wouldn’t have minded kissing him more often just for his taste. The feel of his body was good, too, even at such a young age. He was a muscular boy from the time that we started seriously studying martial arts. His body was tight, firm, and I couldn’t help wanting to touch him, it seemed. My hands worked on their own, going in the inside of his shirt to feel his cut abdomen.

Shin didn’t seem to want to be outdone, so he began unbuttoning my shirt. Once it was open, he started touching my stomach, which was flat, but I lacked any cuts to have abs. I think I was just young teen skinny. He eventually worked my shirt off while continuing to kiss me and he had no problem with unclenching my bra. I had never been bare in front of anyone before Shin, but then again I hadn’t allowed anyone to touch me as he was either. I disliked touching, even in an innocent manner, but I made some exceptions obviously.

I didn’t hide from him, but he managed to surprise me by whispering how beautiful I was. No boy had ever said such a thing to me and, to make matters worse, I knew Shin meant them. I damn near cried, especially when he said it again while looking me dead in the eye. I could only say it back to him as he lifted off his shirt. He may not know it, but I saw him blushing. Shin was and will always be beautiful, despite some of things that he did and does.

Shin eventually pulled away from my mouth and kissed his way down my neck to my breasts. I had no idea where he picked up the move from, but he probably saw it in a movie. I just hope it was a tasteful movie. For a long moment, he just stared at my pale, nude torso. He later told me that he stared because he was puzzled for two reasons. The first was that he didn’t understand why guys weren’t talking about my breasts size when I was easily bigger than most of the other girls in our school and the second reason was that he didn’t understand why he wasn’t turned on yet. I think we all know the answer to both of those reasons.

Shin wasn’t shy about his next move in the slightest; neither of us was really shy about what was going on. I credit his next action to watching too many porno movies. He latched onto my breast with his mouth and suckled it like it was a lollipop. He was extremely good at that and it felt extraordinary once I got over the shock. He managed to give me a hickey on my breast. I suppose that was safer than having one on my neck where the world could see the mark, so I didn’t mind.

I started reaching for his pants and unfastened them with steady fingers. I pulled them down just enough to see that he had on boxers with yellow ducks on them. He was never one for appealing undergarments, which is why I buy them for him, just in case he takes someone to bed who matters. He stepped out of his pants and undid my skirt, removing it quickly. We didn’t remove any other clothes after that, whether it was because we just didn’t want to stop what we were doing or subconsciously realized that we were kidding ourselves with what we were doing, I don’t know which it was. Eventually, we stopped kissing and caressing because neither of us was aroused or even curious enough to continue.

Shin sat on the bed, disappointment written all across his face. I sat up next to him, pressing my bare breasts against his back, having quickly forgotten our state of undress. It didn’t matter since there was nothing sexual in this now. I rested my head on his shoulder.

“What’s the matter?” I asked. I never like seeing him down and out, especially over something silly.

“I really wanted to have sex,” he answered with his usual blunt honesty. He sighed and his shoulders sagged.

“There’s still time to try,” I pointed out. We had only wasted fifteen minutes. We were supposed to have the house to ourselves for the whole afternoon, so we had nothing but time on our hands. I really didn’t care to try again, but if he wanted to, I would.

He shook his head. “Nah, there’s obviously wrong with me if even the thought of having sex with you isn’t getting me up,” he said. See, blunt honesty, like a bat.

I suppose Shin had a point. I clearly did not arouse him and the feeling was very mutual. We weren’t even offended by that evident point, even though neither of us knew why we weren’t aroused. Truthfully, I hadn’t been attracted to anyone, male or female at that point in my life. Every now and there, I might do a double take on someone, but nothing that led me to think I was a lesbian.

I wouldn’t have minded giving Shin my virginity. I wouldn’t have minded being friends with privileges with him, if only we weren’t so completely homosexual. No matter how beautiful we thought the other was or how good the touching felt, there was no sexual attraction there in the slightest.

“It’s okay,” I told him and I kissed his neck, not to be romantic, but because he was and still is ticklish there. He giggled and pushed me away from him.

“Don’t touch my neck!” he complained while making his getaway. He rolled off of the bed and retreated to the other side of the room.

I only made a face at him and then I began getting dressed. He followed my lead and that was the end of our little tryst. We never tried that again. It didn’t bother us much. We went back to doing what we were doing before the suggestion and later on in life we kept bringing it up for a good laugh. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Shin)

It didn’t take me long to consider that I might be a homosexual after my failed attempt to bed the very beautiful Trin. While I might not have been attracted to her, I knew that she was what a female was supposed to look like. She was curvy in all the right places and her face was always pretty. So, I knew if I couldn’t do anything with her, then I had to sit down and figure out why that was.

I thought about who I found interesting. There were not many people that came to mind. I thought about who I watched when we saw movies or when we went to the beach or when we watched martial arts’ tournaments or things like that. This was thoroughly annoying because, again, I’m more hands-on, but I can’t be hands-on if I don’t know what to put my hands on. I couldn’t come to anything too solid because, again, the whole “hands-on” thing, but after all of this soul-searching and crap, I thought I had it.

Trin was the first person that I told that I might be a homosexual and she didn’t seem impressed with my confession. She didn’t even look up from the accursed book that she was reading. She merely listened to me go on and then she said “that’s funny. I am too.” Her tone was more mundane than mine could ever hope to be, but she said it just as casually as I say everything else. I feel like the wench had a lot less crap to get through to come to her conclusion.

We took each other’s confessions with our usual composure and just accepted them. I think it was because we were both homosexuals, which sort of took the edge off of it. When I suggested that we tell our parents, the edge was back with a vengeance.

Trin looked at me with eyes that dared me to say such a thing to her parents and she’d have probably lopped off my limbs before throwing me off of a high bridge. So, I kept her parents out of it and amended my suggestion by saying maybe I should tell _my_ parents. Her look changed only slightly, but I paid her no mind. I didn’t think much of it because my parents were always so unorthodox.

Look, my parents were always different. They are married to each other first of all. A Japanese man and a mulatto American woman as husband and wife. Colors obviously mean nothing to them. Cultural differences didn’t mean anything either, so why should sexuality? Then there was the fact that my mother had me on a bet. She lost a bet to my father and that was the reason that I was born. I’m halfway certain they had an affair when they were supposed to be out trying to kill each other, but that’s never been confirmed. They just aren’t normal people. They never were and never will be now that I’m around. So, I truly believed it would be all right for me to tell them that I was gay. Trin thought I was an idiot, which was clear from the look on her face, but she decided to say it out loud, too, and maybe she was right.

When I first told them, my parents didn’t believe me. They dismissed it and said that I was just a kid that watched too much television, so they thought I was mixed up. When I wouldn’t let it go, it got on their nerves. They actually got angry with me, which was new to me. My mother eventually hollered at me, I’m talking about full, all-out shouting, that I was going to marry Trin when I got older and she was going to have my child and I didn’t to stop bothering her with nonsense. I told Trin what my mother said and she merely looked at me as if she was calling me a moron. Hey, I didn’t say it. It was my mother and she held to that belief for a long time.

I suppose I can see how my mother would think that. Trin was the only person that I ever thought to associate with, so I suppose if we were straight, we might have just decided to get married. I mean, I know I wouldn’t have minded being friends and having sex with her, so I don’t see why we wouldn’t have been able to get married. You know, aside from the fact that she was a lesbian and I was gay. I guess if we ever find ourselves alone and in need of a next of kin or something, we could get married and be each other’s beards, but I don’t see kids coming out of that arrangement unless there’s in vitro going on.

My father literally fought me on the issue after I got on his nerves with it. He threw a katana at me and told me that I could be whatever I wanted, a homosexual included, if I beat him in a for real fight, with actual swords! I’ll leave the details to everyone’s imagination on how it went, but I’ll admit that about thirty seconds into the match, I was already on the floor, tucked into a ball, and close to crying for my mommy. I was only thirteen for crying out loud and that madman was a master swordsman, as well as a master at who knew how many other martial arts, and he knew way too many ways to kill me! He then told me that my sexuality wasn’t up to debate anymore and I needed to go apologize to my mother for even saying such a thing. I refused and told him as much.

After my papa thoroughly kicked my ass, I decided to “run away.” I went to Trin’s house, so it wasn’t much running away. A blind monkey could’ve found me there, but I didn’t have any other place to go. I talked Trin into leaving with me for a little while, but she didn’t agree to run away with me, even though I whined quite a bit to try and change her mind.

We went to hang out at our favorite place, which was under a bridge. It was quiet and no one would bother us there because most of the nitwits in town thought that the whole area was haunted. Our parents found us there about ten minutes after our curfew passed. Once again, not the best place to run away to. I didn’t know what to do and Trin didn’t have any answers for me. It might’ve been a first. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Trin)

I noticed the messy predicament that my moronic best friend placed himself in. I don’t think he realized just how big it was for parents to hear that their son is gay, even parents as unconventional and eccentric as his. He was depressed for a very long time with the way things went and I didn’t like seeing him like that. Shin was never the down and out one in our duo. It was my job to be dour and I’ll be damned if he was taking my job. He was the outlandish one, the goofy one, the smiling one. He didn’t smile anymore and I thoroughly disliked that fact.

I went to speak to his mother, making sure not to tell him. I had to do something even if it was overstepping my bounds in more ways than one. I didn’t want to hurt his pride as a man and let him know that I went to speak with his mother, so it was our little secret.

I was extremely humble when I went to speak with his mother, who I called my aunt by that time. My aunt Tashawna will always deserve every piece of respect that I give that woman and more. She is an amazing woman. I went to her because I believed that it would be easier to talk to her rather than Uncle Shin; yes, Shin stole his father’s name just about the moment that he could speak according to his parents.

I told Aunt Tashawna just how badly Shin was being affected by their rejecting what he knew for a fact by now he was. By the time I was done, Aunt Tashawna looked ready to cry when she admitted that she noticed how he had been behaving, much like a ghost. But, she just couldn’t believe her son, who was so much like his father, wasn’t heterosexual. She said that she was touched by my concern, but she still refused to believe that he wasn’t straight.

Knowing that she cared about Shin’s wellbeing, I merely requested that she humor him at the least, just to lift his spirits. Just to do something that would make him smile again. Maybe this was the wrong thing to ask, but something needed to be done. I know she wanted him to be happy just like I wanted, so I didn’t think that it was a horrible notion and I believed that she would consider it at the very least.

Shin has a great mother. While she might not have agreed with him, she did want to return to his usual self. She said that he and I got enough crap when we went outside into the world with the ignorant masses, so we didn’t need to get it when we came into our homes because inside was supposed to be our sanctuaries. So, she was going to try her best to not only humor him, but accept him if he truly was a homosexual. While she remained confident for a long time that I would have his baby, she told her son to be who he thought he was if that was how he was comfortable. He better never think that he is the father of any baby coming from me, that’s all I know.

 

As far as things went with Uncle Shin, I knew better than to talk with him about it. I left that up to Aunt Tashawna and she handled it in a way that made Uncle Shin treat Shin the same way as he did before he confessed to being gay. Eventually, they were all right with his sexual orientation for real, but it started out with them pretending that they were okay with it. It was nice to see that they cared so much for Shin’s happiness and that they could be reasoned with.

 

Of course, after this, there were times when he would look at me and I could tell he was trying to Jedi mind-trick me into telling my parents. I wasn’t ready for it. After seeing what his parents had done, I couldn’t be sure how my parents would take it and a small part of me still believed I was expendable. But, Shin was happy and that was good enough for me. 

-8-8-8-8-

Next time: some high school bashing and a bit of learning.


	7. Up high

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own these characters, except for Trin, Shin, Tatsu, and Shin’s parents. Everyone else belongs to Disney.

7: Up high

(Trin)

If Hell had a training center, it would be high school. I don’t understand people that claim those are the best years of one’s life. I suspected they were losers as full adults, who didn’t fulfill their dreams or never did anything with their lives beyond those years. All high school for me was a continuing string of morons, like my whole school career until college.

I knew the world was not made up of complete and utter imbeciles. I had seen enough of it traveling extensively thanks to Shin’s parents. They were always people of the world and wanted us to be as well. There was also my parents, who occasionally took us with them on conferences, which were both national and international. So, I wondered why more intelligent people were not occupying the town or just why I had not met them. They had to be there. We had a space center and one of the top hospitals in the state there, for crying out loud. It was painful in a way to have to deal with fools most of the time.

The worst thing about high school was that almost everyone that hated me from first grade on was still there. Some people had graduated and gone off to college, thankfully. I loathed one pair in particular and that was Connie and Lonnie; the Rockwaller bitches. I’d call them whores, but that would be insulting to whores, who at least serve some sort of purpose, unlike those two wenches.

The snake sisters had been in my ass since I started school. It was feasible that a Rockwaller just had to be a thorn in a Possible’s side considering the thing going on with Bonnie and Kim. I had kicked their asses several times, quite literally. I never had any shame in beating up on people that didn’t know how to fight. I have no clue where Kim picked up that silly notion. They should have learned to stop having their mouths write checks that their asses couldn’t cash. They should have learned their lesson the first time and stopped coming at me, but they kept coming back for more.

Shin once suggested that the Rockwaller sisters were attracted to me and they liked it when I made them crawl. He always did have quite the imagination on him. And even if it were right, they repulsed me too much for me to even consider them human, let alone be attracted to either of them. But, it probably would have been fun to crack them with a whip at least once.

Aside from old problems, I had a new problem in form of a shouting jackass named Steve Barkin. Calling him a douche bag might seem a bit much and I have always tried to not use such coarse language, but he was a douche bag; plain and simple. The first day of school, he tried to get in my face for almost being late to class. _Almost_ , as in I wasn’t even late yet.

I ended up being late as I had to stand there and tell him off in my own special way. I cursed him without using a single cuss word for over a minute. It was fun, for me anyway. I doubt that he saw it that way. The look on his face said it was something appalling and perhaps a bit confusing to him. He turned red as I spoke and sputtered a bit, trying to say something back. I was going through a bit of a poetic phase when it came to insulting people that irked me; I could see where he might have been a little confused with me using too many metaphors.

I could guess that Mr. Barkin hadn’t been warned about me and Shin. He saw me and I suppose thought “she’s little and blonde, so she must be weak.” No, that was a very bad assumption. I might have been a bookworm, but I also had teeth and claws to go along with that book.

I believe that Mr. Barkin attempted to get on Shin the second that he saw him, too. Shin had come to school dressed in a kimono. He was still in a festival mindset because we had just gone to Japan over the summer and all we did was hunt for festivals. Mr. Barkin got on Shin about being dressed like a woman. Apparently, in his head, only a woman could wear a kimono. I will always be thankful to not be in his head.

Mr. Barkin was the first person in Middleton that we had come across to realize that Chinese people weren’t the only Asians on the planet. Unfortunately, he seemed to be stuck on believing that Shin was Korean. Why Shin would be Korean and in a kimono was beyond the both of us. Once again, I will always be thankful to not be that man’s head. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Shin)

Throughout my life I had always been every type of Asian as long as it wasn’t Japanese. I’d like to think that the name Shinichi Toriyama screamed Japanese to the heavens and back, but maybe I’m wrong. I wouldn’t even mind if they thought I was completely Japanese, if only they got the Japanese part because I knew that no one was going to guess half Japanese, a quarter Black and a quarter White. But, it was like people didn’t know the nation of Japan existed or something.

Anyway, I did come to school in a kimono. I had like ten of them and I felt like it was a shame to just wear them for festivals or special occasions. I didn’t even have too many special occasions to wear them to since my father’s family didn’t accept me. I liked my kimonos and I also liked trying to get Trin to wear hers with me. Sometimes it worked, but that day it was just me. Later on down the line, she would join me every so often and wear one of her many pink kimonos to school.

First, Mr. Barkin wanted me to go home and change when he saw me. He looked at it as the equivalent of me showing up at school in a dress, which I would’ve done if I was that adventurous, but even I never cross-dressed. I had to lecture him like the idiot that he was as to why it was appropriate for me to wear a kimono. Little did I know that the harpy had just chewed him up and spit him out, making him even more hardheaded than he really was. So, I had to be a little harder than usual with the guy and he still wasn’t really paying me all the mind that I would’ve liked, until I actually threatened to bend him over to prove a man could wear a kimono. He was rightfully confused by my declaration. Hell, even I didn’t know really where I was going with that one.

But, from then on, my goal was to perplex him with sort of gay banter. Most of the things I said didn’t make any sense, but it was worth it to see the confused look in his eyes. I once told him only a real man could go deep throat and then I told him that he proved that. He hated me to say the least.

I’d like to say that Mr. Barkin hated me more than he hated Trin, but I can’t be certain. I can say that he hated when we were together, which was almost all of the time. It was like tag team on him when both of us happened to cross his path. She’d say something, then I’d chime in, and then back to her. He never knew what hit him when it was the both of us, so after a while, he stopped bothering with us.

For a while, I truly think that he was scared of Trin. The bitch had teeth and that tongue in her head was an effective carving tool for a creative and abusive mind dominated by demons. I had the whole gay thing that scared him off, but she had something that was frightening, like a homicidal manic was frightening. I think he looked in her eyes and could tell she truly didn’t give a damn about anyone.

So, he eased off of us until Trin kicked some dude’s ass for grabbing her ass. I had always noticed that her ass seemed to scream “grab me.” There must be some magnetic force in her ass for hands because, hell, even I had been tempted to cup in on more than one occasion, if only to see the appeal. I imagine she would’ve decked me.

Anyway, Mr. Barkin decided to go at Trin for being molested in my opinion. No, wait, not just my opinion, but in reality. Okay, she was downright molested. That kid had no right to grab her ass or anything else on her body.

Mr. Barkin claimed that he was going at her for beating a kid up. I believe the injured young man was on the football team and he probably had it in his big head that he could do whatever he wanted to anyone. Mr. Barkin seemed to back that by going after the harpy for defending herself. Trin straightened that kid out and then all but bit Mr. Barkin’s head clean off his shoulders for having the balls to come at her because she was sexual harassed.

Our parents actually came up to the school because of that incident after they heard us joking about it. Barkin had, of course, been annoyed by their arrival and he did not know how to deal with them. He tried to argue how Trin had possibly ruined the kid’s football career, but they didn’t want to hear any of that. All she had done was broke the nutty kid’s nose anyway. Unless the kid caught or ran with his nose, his career was probably safe. It wasn’t as serious as he was trying to make it out on that kid’s end. Hell, the kid even apologized. Barkin was such a bastard. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Trin)

Aside from dealing with overall stupid people, we took mostly advanced classes throughout our high school careers. High school wasn’t that bad as far as education went. Our teachers were mostly pussies, though. As you can imagine, I held great animosity toward them to continue to use such harsh language.

Every now and then, we did get a teacher who didn’t know who we were. Those teachers typically came from out of town. They were also generally cool and we could talk to them because they respected us, either our minds or abilities or desires to actually do our best academically. I believe it would be appropriate to give them credit in helping calm us down. We got a chance to see it wasn’t use against the whole town thanks to them.

For a while, I will admit that Shin and I were out of control. Not so much to where our parents were worried about us, but enough to where we were taking the smallest things to heart and the tiniest things set us off. The foolish thing was that we weren’t taking into account that we could screw around and kill someone, someone who probably didn’t deserve to die. While Shin and I might fake it very well that we’d kill people, it never was on our “to do” list, especially if it was some little high school student.

The couple of teachers that we had that were cool, they frankly told us that we were better than the way that we acted. We had heard the speech before, but the difference was that those teachers didn’t put it in a condescending way that we were accustomed to. They pointed out that life was about learning and growing and just because we were ahead of our class didn’t mean that they couldn’t catch up to us one day if we only gave them a chance. They pointed out that every now and then people weren’t always looking to offend us. They were just uninformed or curious or something similar to that. It took us a while, but we considered they might have a point.

Shin and I did think that perhaps if we always thought the worst of people that made us no better than they were. They typically assumed the worst of us, which was always close-minded. We would be close-minded, too, if we kept assuming that everyone was horrible or stupid in some manner. The teachers we had that we liked proved this wasn’t the best way to go about life because we would’ve missed out on getting closer to them, which I will honestly say would’ve been tragic. These were not just nice, open-minded people, but brilliant in their fields as well.

So, eventually, we got to believing in giving folks a chance, in our own ways anyway. To do that, Shin had the brilliant notion that we should join some teams. He also pointed out that it would look great on our college applications, which was a little more important to me than actually socializing with anyone, idiot or not.

Shin wanted to go through all of the teams and clubs in the school, even though we didn’t plan on joining anything that involved large groups of people. I also wasn’t looking to be involved in anything that had people touching me. I was against all forms of touching, especially if the person doing the touching didn’t have the last name Possible or Toriyama. Shin was really just bored, I soon learned.

My evil twin was only looking to make people uncomfortable rather than actually joining most teams or clubs. He was already known to be a homosexual, even though he didn’t date oddly enough, and most high school jocks weren’t looking to be on a team with him. He had quite a bit of fun messing with the football team when he tried out. He might have actually traumatized some of them.

I, on the other hand, entertained myself by pointing out all of the in-the-closet homosexuals on all of the teams we went through. It made everyone nervous and I was rather accurate when it came to both males and females. Shin was the one that confirmed the males. He always was into exploring other people’s sexuality.

Watching Shin during the tryouts was enjoyable because no boy wanted to get near him. Some boys even ran when he got close to them, especially during the basketball tryouts. They just didn’t want him bending behind them to play defense.

We did our best at tennis, swimming, and track because they didn’t involve touching other people or really interacting with other people. I had refused to tryout for any sport that had touching in it, much to Shin’s annoyance. I knew that most of the teams didn’t really want me anyway, much like most teams didn’t want Shin, but they didn’t want us for different reason. I wasn’t out like he was, after all.

We joined the chess club, proudly wearing our “nerd” labels apparently. Uncle Shin had taught us the game well. The club kicked us out rather quickly because Shin kept yelling “king me” while making moves. I doubted it helped that he was beating everyone soundly while acting like an idiot. Quite annoying. We used to show up after they booted us just because we wanted to be irksome. We wanted them to understand that we’d leave only when we wanted to and not a moment before. We couldn’t be kicked out of any place. Juvenile behavior to be sure, but it felt like the thing to do at the time. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Shin)

Technically nothing too overwhelming happened to us in high school as far as either of us was concerned. It was all the same thing with new people involved as well as old people. The best thing that we did was to get into computers. We had played games on the computer for a while, but eventually, Trin, being full of irksome intellectual curiosity, wanted to know everything about the bloody machines. At first, the thought only bored me, but I started seeing the things that she was learning how to do and I wanted to do them, too.

The first time she cracked one up to see the guts and figure out how it worked, I’m sure I drooled. And then when she put it back together and it worked like a charm, I was hooked. I needed to do it, too. I needed to do every little thing she managed to do – make programs, build computers from scratch, create games, make virus protection and viruses, and everything else.

Trin roped me into a lot of things by learning how to do them. She usually taught herself and then made them look way cool. She did that with computers, a few forms of martial arts, that I never cared about, and even some extreme sports.

It was during our early high school years that I discovered that Trin might be afraid of heights. She refused to do the high dive when we did swimming. She called me an idiot when I suggested that we should up to the roof. She wanted reasons for such an idea. Why in the hell would I have reasons to go to the school roof aside from the fact that we weren’t allowed up there? I was actually going to pretend to jump to see if anyone cared, but it wasn’t enough to get her to go up there. She just was no good when it came to high places. Of course, she’d never admit it.

She and I was actually an odd pair and I suppose I realized that while we were in high school. She was so much more low-key than I could ever be. It never was that I wanted people to notice me, but it was just that it was fun to bug out. I also liked making people wonder “what the fuck is wrong with that kid?” For a long time, people had been trying to tell my parents that I was brain-damaged. Someone even suggested I had autism. It was just hard to believe with the grades that I always got that my brain was anything less than perfect. Although, some people did argue that I just cheated off of the harpy. Like she would let me cheat off of her. Yeah, right.

High school was about the time that we got into our fashions. Trin got into her pinks and yellows, mostly dull colors; she picked up her light blues fairly recently. She typically didn’t like bright colors. I figured it was because those might call some attention to her and she never was looking to do that. Weirdo.

My fashion, if it could be called that, started out with my wearing my kimonos to school. Once I ran out of kimonos, I realized that I didn’t want to go back to jeans. For a minute, I considered giving up on pants altogether and getting a wardrobe entirely of kimonos. My father said that he didn’t have a problem with me just wearing kimonos as along as I was the one buying them, which sort of shut me down. Those things were expensive and I was unemployed. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Trin)

I would just like to clear up the air, I was never afraid of heights. I am not afraid of heights. Just because I fail to see the appeal in climbing up to the roof to pretend that I was going to kill myself didn’t make me afraid of heights. Just because I always gave up the window seat whenever I got in an airplane didn’t mean I was afraid of heights. I had been to plenty of high places in my life and never once was I afraid. I would never be scared of something so silly and plain ridiculous.

Ask yourself this, how can a person that was willing to taunt Global Justice be scared if anything as trivial as heights? I had laughed in the face of GJ and at heights. I was never afraid of heights. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Shin)

I know it as a fact, she was and is scared of heights. Don’t let her fool you. 

-8-8-8-8-

Next time: Trin and Shin do some work for Global Justice and do some work to Global Justice. You also find out what Shin’s mother does for a living.


	8. Top Secret

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own these characters, except for Trin, Shin, Tatsu, and Shin’s parents. Everyone else is owned by Disney.

8: Top Secret

(Trin)

The first time that we went on a field mission for Global Justice, it was weird. Auntie Tashawna pretty much babysat us for the entire mission. She worked for GJ as one of their most elite agents. Working with her while being the most educational mission that we were ever on was anything but fun. She was so worried about us being injured that she hardly allowed us to do anything at all. She also scolded us thoroughly for the reason that we went on the mission. We had hacked a GJ satellite for some stupid reason that escaped me after a few months of doing it.

After that mission, Shin and I considered that we might have to stop hacking things if they were going to force us to work with his mother again. She just wasn’t fun to work with. She acted like we were simpletons. I know she was worried about us being in a very dangerous situation, but when we used to go outside, it was a dangerous situation, so we believed we could handle it. While it might not be the exact same thing, we were not new to danger.

We did do careless things all of the time, especially on that mission. Auntie Tashawna practically had a heart attack by the time that the whole thing was said and done. She had to take some time off after seeing us in action on a deadly mission. Shin dismissed it as his mother “acting too much like a mother.” As if he wanted her to act any other way.

Uncle Shin thought that it was funny that we stressed his wife out. He kept saying that he could picture her practically pulling her hair out every time we did something off the wall. All Auntie Tashawna could do was say that he needed to take us on a mission and then come back with all of his hair and sanity. He scoffed. Obviously, he knew enough about us from training us to know that he would never even consider taking us on a mission.

Uncle Shin actually took exception to taking us outside, so anywhere that might be seriously dangerous was more than likely out of the question. He claimed that we disappeared too easily and he disliked that. He was the one that taught us how to do it. He just would have preferred that we told him that we were leaving before we left. He said sometimes we left him talking to the air because we cut out in the middle of his sentence and he claimed it made him look crazy. Trust me, he doesn’t need help in looking crazy.

The next GJ mission that we went on, we got stuck with two agents that we didn’t know. I guessed it was because Doctor Director was upset with the fact that we made her top agent take a short and abrupt vacation after working with us. The people that she teamed us up with didn’t like us very much from the start. They looked at us as if we were criminals. Yes, we had done something illegal. If we hadn’t, we certainly wouldn’t have been wasting time with GJ, but no one had gotten hurt. Actually even if someone had gotten hurt, I wouldn’t have cared much at the time. Shin wouldn’t have cared either. If he was in a particularly funny mood, he might’ve envied them.

As soon as we touched down in the jungle, where the mission was to take place, we split into two groups, which were the orders. I was paired up with biggest jackass that I had ever met and I had met plenty. His name was Ken Du and he was unfortunate enough to meet my demons, but it was his own fault. He seemed to be under the impression that he was better than Shin and I were in everyway after reading our files, which we had perused through plenty of times.

The files didn’t paint pictures of us worthy of museum décor. They painted us as psychopaths, sociopaths, and possible enemies to the organization sometime in the future. They thought so little of us that Shin’s files failed to mention who his mother was, probably to avoid soiling her reputation. Most of GJ believed whatever the files said about us too, but we could care less.

Ken and I were moving through one side of the grounds while Shin and his partner had the other side. Why we split this way instead of Shin and I sticking together? Well, the mission plan actually called for the partnership, as well as what team would go where. Shin and I were being babysat again. It was disgusting and unpleasant to say the least.

We were careful of traps and alarms. All the while, he looked down his nose at me and spoke about how he could not believe he was working with some felon who probably would be in prison by the end of the year. He called me every name in the book while demeaning me lower than low and how it was unethical – seriously, he used that word – for someone of my “standing” and intellect to standing near him, let alone working a top secret mission with him. That rat-faced bastard then had the nerve to push me into a tripwire. It was out of the blue, almost like he wanted me to believe that it was an accident, but with the way that he had been acting through out the whole thing, I knew it was intentional.

I was nearly blown to tiny blonde bits. I had to two things working on my side, extremely fast reflexes and an inventive mind that had come up with a force-field prototype that covered the human body. It worked just enough to save my life and leave me with enough strength to decide fuck the mission.

“You should be more careful, dear,” he said in a snotty tone. Yes, definitely, fuck the mission.

No one tried to kill Trin Possible and didn’t pay for it immediately, if not sooner. Ken Du certainly would learn to regret his actions as my demons came out to play. I gave into them and my leash was thousands of miles away. He certainly would regret his foolish actions. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Shin)

I wasn’t having better luck with my partner. It was funny because I thought the mission with my mother would be the most annoying thing that I had ever done. I mean, the woman acted like I didn’t have a brain in my head. I understand we could’ve almost died and everything, and a couple of times I came really close to being the death of us all or whatever, but she worried way too much. It wasn’t that serious in my opinion.

My partner was infinitely worse than that mission with my mother. I didn’t know if it was a cruel joke setting me up with that bitch, but I wasn’t laughing. Her name was something or other Hinata. I wasn’t paying much attention when she was introduced to us and I stopped paying her any mind after she made it known that she was just an openly racist whore. She was just about the only member of GJ it seemed aside from Doctor Director who knew who my parents were.

The little cunt made many not at all true remarks about my mother and her “race.” I’m talking this bitch might have actually been a card-carrying member of the Klan or something. She then proceeded to talk about my father, his marriage to my mother, and about his skillset, or lack there of as she tried to imply. I didn’t know why she knew the things about my father that she did, but I guessed it was because she was a noisy bitch that certainly overstepped her boundaries.

She seemed to be under the impression that I wouldn’t hit a woman. Little did she know that I had spent my life hitting a far more superior and less irksome woman, not to mention I actually liked the female I tended to hit. I hated that prejudice bitch after spending five seconds with her and listening to the garbage that was coming from her mouth. I decked her right in the mouth. I just needed her to shut up. The thing that got me was that I got in trouble for that shit. Oh, yeah, just punish me for putting that uppity cunt in her place; that would always be fair.

Okay, maybe it was just a little wrong of me to punch the shit out of that silly bitch. I should’ve had Trin do it, but of course, the harpy was busy hospitalizing a GJ top agent. She was always topping me! I had hit an agent, sure I knocked a tooth out, but she had sent a guy to the hospital. She just had to one-up me. I suppose a normal human being wouldn’t be upset over such a matter. Well, fuck normal.

We failed at the mission to say the least and were threatened with jail time for a while because of our actions toward those agents. We were allowed to explain ourselves for why we had done what we did, but we didn’t really care to explain ourselves. Our actions were our business until some parents showed up, which they did. Damn our parents and their desire to be responsible and raise slightly adjusted offspring.

When I learned why Trin had hospitalized Ken Du, I was tempted to go to the hospital and finish the job; she had almost killed the moron. She had broken both his legs in several places, ruining muscles and nerves in both limbs. The doctors weren’t too sure if he would ever walk again. The monkey agent actually tried to make it seem like Trin had gone bananas on him for no reason. He wasn’t special enough to garner a beating of that magnitude for no reason and even Doctor Director seemed to believe that. But, that didn’t mean people still weren’t pissed at Trin for putting bastard were he belonged.

Once the issue of jail time was dismissed, it seemed that we were more at risk in jail of becoming just what they didn’t want than we were outside in the world. They also figured that we would just escape if we didn’t go completely nuts. Other preparations were made to act as a punishment.

After all, we still had to pay back that first mission and make up for what we had done to those agents. My mother came up with a proper punishment. She made us clerks at the Global Justice headquarters for the summer. We knew then that we had done something wrong. Betrayed by my own mother! It was unreal.

Doctor Director seemed to like the idea enough. It gave us something to do while making sure we were as miserable as possible. We couldn’t even fake incompetence to get out of things because my mother or Doctor Director supervised us. I wanted to break down and cry. I thought it might gain me some sympathy from my mommy. I decided against it because there was always the chance that she would just tell me to suck it up and stop doing crazy things if I couldn’t take the punishment.

It was pure torture to be clerks for a whole summer. Thankfully, my mother never stuck her nose in our business like that again. She might have had us mopping the floors if we had done something worse. She had bigger fish to fry, though.

The couple of other times that we ran into problems from messing around with things that belonged to Global Justice got us put on a couple of other missions with teammates to babysit us. It seemed that we just couldn’t play well with others. We couldn’t make it through a mission with those so-called agents.

Everyone was so self-important in GJ. They treated us as if we were murderers, or children, or worse yet, animals. We weren’t any of those things and if they just gave us a shot… well, I would’ve went home and let Trin handle all of the heavy work. Eventually, someone came up with the brilliant plan of letting us go out on our own. I doubt that idea was received well. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Trin)

I think that the notion of letting us go off on a mission sans an escort started out as a joke. It received serious thought as they started placing bets on imaginary scenarios of how we would do on a mission on our own. Once they were fed up with the playing make-believe, they decided to let us go out on our own to see what would happen and they placed bets.

Some people bet that we would be killed outright about five minutes into the mission. Others made more logical bets that we would just go home as soon as no one was looking. It had been a tempting idea, especially since we had better things to do with our time than act as dogs for the organization. Not to mention, Shin made a really argument for just walking away. Still, others bet that we wouldn’t make it far before we just gave up and left. There were plenty of things going on, none of them saying that we would complete the mission. No one had faith in us trying very hard to complete the stupid mission.

Not to be excluded when money was involved, I bet on us completing the mission in record time. It seemed to be an offer that no one could refuse and I bet my lifesavings on it, which was quite a bit already because Shin and I had started making money by selling top of the line security software that we had developed after hacking the GJ computer for the first time. Quite a few people took the bet. Shin eagerly leaped in after he noticed that GJ was crawling with suckers. A fool and his money are soon parted; it was no lie around that office. Didn’t these idiots understand that having so much money on the line would make us want to prove them wrong even more so than before?

The mission wasn’t too difficult, in our opinions anyway. We had to recover some documents from some obese man by the name of Big Daddy Brotherson. They made it seem much harder than it was when we were briefed on the situation. We sneaked into his office during lunchtime, figuring he would be too busy devouring a moose to take notice of us.

Now, he was having lunch, probably his second of the day. The problem was that he was in his office while having a feast that probably would’ve sustained a small country. Well, we had a plan if that happened.

We dropped into the office, literally. Shin pulled a gun on the whale of a man while I dropped the lone guard that was stationed in the office. As muscular as the man was, I knocked him out without a problem. Shin was enjoying brandishing a firearm, or so the very amused smirk on his face suggested. I am sure his huge grin had something to do with the fact that the gun was not what it appeared. It was like one big practical joke to him.

“Move and you’re dead. Although, I think it might be possible that you’re at point where the bullets would get stuck,” Shin commented with a smirk. I went to search for the files while he was happy with his “gun.”

“What’s the meaning of this?” Big Daddy demanded. Why did everyone want reasons for why we just popped up? Obviously, we were bored and that would be the meaning of it. Besides, he was being robbed. Why would the thieves, namely us, explain to the man we were robbing, why we were robbing him?

“We lost our Christmas list in your office, thinking you were Santa, but now it’s obvious that you just ate the man’s reindeer. You might’ve ate him, too,” Shin remarked. Ah, yes, he always did have a paper-thin wit. It would only get worse as he got older.

“You’ll hang for this,” Big Daddy promised us. The fat bastard still hasn’t gotten around to fulfilling that threat. Shin might try to remind him of it sooner or later.

“If not this, then something else,” my evil twin replied and he had a point.

The fat man then tried to move. At least, I think he did anyway. He might’ve just been taking a breath, but noticeable motion was involved. Shin pulled the hammer back on his gun. Apparently, he took the movement as a threat and not a breath.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Shin warned him.

“Let’s go,” I said. I found the files rather easily. He was a well-organized fat man. The files did have jelly stains on them, though.

“Okay,” Shin commented and then he spotted a pack of cigarettes on the desk between him and the fat man.

The pack was next to fabulous looking crepes. He grabbed one, a cigarette, not a crepe. I’m surprised he didn’t take one of both. I decided on a crepe, though. Taking one with a nearby napkin.

“Do you mind?” my evil twin asked Big Daddy as if the answer mattered to him and then he took a cigarette before the answer came. 

Shin lit the cigarette with his gun. Yes, it was actually a lighter fashioned to look like a handgun. We never carried guns, more out of fear that we might one day shoot each other than anything else. It was always tempting to shoot Shin once he got started because he was out of his tiny mind. I imagine putting one in his foot might straighten him out a bit.

To say the least, we won the bet. It was a nice sum of money and Kim and I blew much of it very quickly. I have never understood why it was, but when Kim and I got near a store and there was money in my pocket, it was like we got sucked in by some gravitational force and compelled to spend. It might be some law of physics. I can’t even recall what we even got with that money.

I do know that I treated my mother and Kim to some things. We went to a spa, taking Auntie Tashawna along. She needed to get away from her insane husband and son every now and then. I treated all three of them to some jewelry, too.

I believe I bought my brothers some fireworks. They had great fun with that. I brought my father some ties that he never used. He always was a hard man to shop for. But, we also took a trip to a planetarium together. Shopping for him – hard, spending time with him – easy. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Shin)

She was always such a spendthrift once we got money. Now, I did buy my mother a few things with the money that we won, but it wasn’t for no good reason like with the harpy. It was a good way to slide by on some things that I would later do and would have gotten yelled at if I hadn’t pretended to be the good son. Well, not pretended. I like to think I am a good son. Just a fun-loving scamp of a son.

My father wasn’t as easy to win over and buy off because if it doesn’t have a blade, he doesn’t give a crap. But, then again, he was more laidback than my mother when it came to me doing stupid things. He liked for me to learn on my own that something was stupid.

In fact, when I was a baby, my father used to let me crawl off of the bed and fall on my face, figuring one day I would learn to not crawl to the end of the bed. He almost let me kill myself when I was a toddler because he was going to let me stick a knife in wall socket. My mother had barked on him for not only letting me almost get electrocuted, but for also watching me play with a knife. Good thing she was around or I probably would’ve killed myself before my third birthday. Of course, I would’ve gone grinning.

Well, I treated my father to some food because that was always a good way to get to him. I guess I got my love of food from him. I treated my papa to a few meals and, with luck, it would save me a scolding or ten later on down the road. 

-8-8-8-8-

Next time: Meet Trin’s birth mother or “that woman” as she calls her.


	9. Mommy Dearest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own these characters, Disney does, except for Trin, Shin, Tatsu, and Shin’s parents.

9: Mommy Dearest

(Shin)

I didn’t know it for a long time and it shocked the hell out of me when I found out, but Trin was adopted. It was seriously news to me and I was sixteen at the time. She had kept it from me for ten years and when I found out, I actually thought that she was lying. I mean, Trin was and always would be a Possible in my eyes.

Trin had everything that I knew a Possible had. She had a brilliant brain, an open mind, crazy skills, and a lot of experience in all sorts of things. That was a Possible if never I saw one. Plus, I thought she actually looked like her mom. But, then again, I guess it explained why there were no baby pictures of her around, which I never thought about until she brought up that she was adopted. So, I was a bit thrown off when she came out of the blue and asked if I desired to go with her to meet the people who created her.

I made a Frankenstein joke because she seriously used the term “created.” She refused to refer to them as her “biological parents,” or “birth parents,” or something similar to those things. She often used the term “those people who created me” or “those people who brought me into existence.” A few times, she used the phrase “the people who abandoned me.”

When she spoke of her birth mother, she often called her “that woman.” There didn’t seem to be any sort of connection between her and “that woman.” She spoke of her in her usual business-like tone. She might as well have been talking about a chair most of the time when she spoke of “that woman.”

With her birth father, she called him “that man” most of the time. I didn’t blame her for what she called them. It had to be hard to be abandoned, even if it was by shitty parents and everything worked out somewhat. At least she had much better parents now, but that didn’t seem to make things all right.

I had heard whispers and rumors about how Trin got into the hands of the doctors Possible. I just never believed it at all. That harpy was a Possible and whoever said otherwise was a complete idiot as far as I was concerned. I thought people were just trying to be mean-spirited as usual. I guess I was wrong for once.

I did wonder why Trin had waited so long to go see “the people who created” her. She explained that she had only just found them. They weren’t a top priority in her life, she claimed. I believed her and I should’ve guessed as much.

Well, I hopped right on that bandwagon. I wanted to see those people, the people who foolishly cast her away. They were the people that told her first, before the rest of the world, that she was nothing more than a trinket, a trivial creature, nothing worth caring about. I had to see those people and probably boast to them that they were idiots and had thrown away gold. They had like a million dollar idea and they tossed her aside. Morons.

I wondered what I would’ve done in her place. What if my parents had left me in a mall? I would’ve died. I knew that right away. I wouldn’t have been able to last for a second if my mother left me alone somewhere. I would’ve just been crying for my mother like the baby I was. She managed to survive on her own for days before Aunt Ann and Uncle James found her. Amazing.

Trin didn’t know which parent she was going to go see first. Apparently, they weren’t living together, but she said she expected as much. She wasn’t sure how they remained together when she was with them. We flipped a coin; hey, sometimes things were best left to Fate. I had suggested we save the most fucked up parent for last. She didn’t look amused.

Damn it, she was going to be all serious about it, which meant that I wouldn’t have nearly as much fun as I expected, if I had any fun at all. Well, unless of course I liked to be kicked in the face and it would be the face if I was lucky. She always said that I didn’t have to worry about having kids. She was such a harpy.

She didn’t tell anyone, except for me, that she found “those people.” I suppose there were several reasons for that. She’d like to appear to not give a damn about “those people,” but obviously she did care just a bit since she wasted her time finding them.

I was certain that she didn’t tell anybody else because she didn’t want to look like she was ungrateful toward her actual parents. The people that took the time of day to raise her into the harpy that I know, love, and seem to share a spine with since we’re always together. She was probably pissed, too, that she took the time out of her life to find “those people.” There might have even been a level of embarrassment there. She really didn’t want anyone to mistake the effort for emotions. Whatever the reason, I was and probably will always be the only person to know that Trin met her birth parents. It was always adventure with her.

The coin came up “heads” and we were going to see _that woman_ first. Trin rented a car, being the one in our duo with driving skills and a truly fantastic fake ID that allowed her to rent the car. We set out one weekend with the intent of seeing both parents since they lived close to each other.

I was in charge of thinking up the lie since I will always be the liar of our pair. Trin always was into the whole honesty thing when it came to our folks and her siblings. Honesty or silence, but she would never lie. She had the perfect poker face, though, so it was hard to tell if she was withholding information, so that made up for the fact that she didn’t lie. She could bluff her ass off.

I told the parents that we were going out to pick up some more computer equipment at a computer show. No one questioned that since they knew we were computer junkies. All they did was tell us to not spend too much money on crap and not to eat donuts the whole weekend. They even offered a car, but we declined, of course. After that, road trip!

I guess I shouldn’t have cheered. I mean, I would be trapped in a small area with my evil twin and she wasn’t in a fun mood. All I had was my laptop and some music. Trin and I, we always had the same taste in music thankfully. It calmed her down as we drove for her to hear some Mozart. I was safe. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Trin)

I didn’t know that I was in such a tense mood. It wasn’t like I didn’t know what to expect. So, I wasn’t sure why I wasn’t my usual self. Sure, my usual self wasn’t cheerful, but I wasn’t gloomy either.

We arrived at the small house in the middleclass neighborhood. There were toys in the front yard. Shin looked surprised by the toys, but he decided to keep his big mouth shut for once. We went to the door and I knocked. A small boy answered the door without inquiring who it was, which was something that Shin always detested. The strangest things set him off.

“Oh, come on, kid! We could be killers or something worse! Like salesmen. Do you want us to try to sell you new cable or something? What the hell are you doing opening the door like that?” Shin barked and the child wisely slammed the door in his face.

“Way to go,” I grumbled. Shin and his zillion and one pet peeves. I turned my attention back to the door and hoped that the boy was still there. “It’s all right. We’re not killers or salesmen. We just want to speak with your mother,” I said.

A moment passed before the door opened again. Instead of the same child, _that_ _woman_ answered the door. It will always bother me that I fucking look like her. I could also see how Shin was stunned by how much I resembled that woman. He had always sworn to high heavens I look like my mother, but seeing _that woman_ in person, he now knew the truth. As long as the resemblance was skin deep, it wasn’t that bad. Well, I looked like her, but I looked much better. She was a tired looking woman with lines, bags, and a few pock marks, aged beyond her thirty some odd years from all kinds of bullshit.

“What can I do for you?” she asked. Shin looked at me, apparently curious as to what I would say. I had a plan. As long as I wasn’t mysteriously stuck dumb, I was all right.

“We’d like to talk to you about someone named Trinket Bane,” I replied. Her face appeared shocked, her eyes going wide as saucers and her mouth literally fell open.

“What do you know about my little Trinket?” she asked anxiously, eagerly. I was close to scoffing in her face from the question.

“May we come in?” I requested. I had little inclination of discussing the matter in the doorway.

“Please,” she replied and ushered us into her home.

She held the door open wide for us to walk in and motioned for us to come in with her hand. I entered first and Shin followed. He seemed to still be in shock and was probably just pulled by the invisible line that connected us. He looked around the place and saw all kinds of toys just littering the house.

“Sorry about the mess,” she apologized almost humbly.

She took us to the kitchen where there was a little table for us to sit and talk. The table took up most of the space in the small kitchen. Shin stood behind me while I sat down, folding my hands in my lap. She looked up at him. I think he made her nervous for some reason. It wasn’t like he was an imposing figure in any way. I adjusted my glasses and turned my attention to her.

“So, what do you know about my Trinket?” she asked as if she was concerned and eager for some news on a silly little girl that had meant so little to her long ago. She was so concerned that she had given up looking for that empty-headed creature a long time ago, thankfully.

“She’s alive and well. Her name’s not Trinket anymore. You probably don’t need any other information,” I replied.

Despite what people might have thought, I never cared about _that woman_ or _that man_. I only wanted to see them up close and confirm if I wanted to do something to them or not. I didn’t even need to be near her any more than that minute. I knew how I felt. I never did care about her and that was affirmed. She was no one to me.

“Come on,” I said to Shin and I was about to stand up. He didn’t look surprised. He probably knew that I wouldn’t want to be there any more than a minute anyway.

“Wait, where is she? I want to see her,” _that woman_ said, practically pleading. I stared at her and saw she was actually curious. I sat back down. I could spare a moment to not be a bitch about things. I was bigger than that, I told myself.

“Do you mind if I smoke?” I inquired, not really caring what her answer was going to be. I might have been bigger than being a bitch, but I was still on edge. Shin handed me a cigarette and he lit it for me.

“You don’t look old enough to smoke,” she commented.

“I was unaware that there were age requirements to kill one’s self,” I replied. Shin and I only smoked for about a month or so. We had always picked up vices and dropped them easily. We were always fickle in so many ways.

“So, where’s Trinket?” she pressed, leaning forward against the table, ready to gobble down any information.

I waved the question off. “She’s not Trinket anymore. Her name’s Trin now. What does it even matter where she is?” I asked. I wanted to say she never cared where I was before, but that wasn’t true. She always wanted to know where I was. I’m fairly sure she didn’t even abandon me on purpose, but that didn’t make up for the fact that the bitch left me in a fucking mall for a week and I was four years old.

“She’s my daughter,” _that woman_ insisted. I didn’t miss a beat, though, Shin looked skeptical for a brief moment.

“No, she’s not,” I replied smoothly. I didn’t change my facial expression or tone at all.

“She is.”

“No, she isn’t and you should get that silly notion out of your head—” I tried to say, but she didn’t give a chance to finish.

“You can’t tell me who my daughter is,” she barked, jumping out of her chair.

“I can tell you. She isn’t your daughter. You never thought of her as a daughter back then—” I tried to point out, but she once again rudely interrupted me.

“I did,” she insisted and I think it was her foolish conviction that cracked my game plan. I wasn’t going to tell her who I was, but the next words I spoke hung me.

“You didn’t. You were always too busy trying to score your next hit and using me as a tool to make that jackass you were with stay with you or use me as a shield so he wouldn’t hit you. If I was your daughter, you would’ve been there for me instead of leaving me in a mall for a week. You would’ve had me at home instead of standing on a corner at night in the freezing rain while you went to get high or do who knows what the hell else. You would’ve been there when I was plucking roaches and mice out my breakfast, if I was lucky enough to have breakfast. You would’ve been there when I had lice eating my head, rats crawling on my body, and clothes so foul they were literally stuck to my skin. I was just a thing to you,” I stated. My voice was strong, but my words were very much an accident.

“You…” she whispered, her eyes wide once more.

“I’m Trin, yes. So, I do know who’s your daughter and it’s not me. I’m not even interested in having this philosophical debate with you.”

“Then why’d you come here?” she asked. She seemed to under the very false impression that I wanted her in my life or something. 

“Just to make sure you were the stranger I assumed you. I wanted to see what you looked like and where you lived. I suppose it’s nice to see you cleaned up,” I replied. It probably would’ve been nice had she been cleaned up when I was born, but I guess that would’ve made too much sense.

“You don’t know what I went through—” she actually tried to defend herself. The woman had left me in a fucking mall and she was trying to defend her actions to me.

“Nor do I care to know. Nothing you can say to me is going to excuse the fact that I was a thing to you. I was an object that you could use to gain sympathy or use as a shield, and those were the only reasons I was there. I was a thing. Don’t act like you wanted me as a mother wants a child now. Even if you do, I don’t care,” I proclaimed because I didn’t.

I was curious if I was going to feel some connection to _that woman_ , but I didn’t. It was as I said; she was a stranger to me. I felt nothing toward her. I could leave her and never think about her again, just like when someone walked by people on the street. She was a stranger.

“Trinket, you don’t—” she tried to say something that I didn’t want to hear.

“That’s not my name,” I stated and rose to my feet. I put my cigarette out with my fingers, as was my habit, and I put it in the garbage. “It might do you best to consider Trinket Bane dead. I can promise you that you won’t see me again,” I vowed.

“Trinket, please,” she had the nerve to beg me.

For a moment, I thought of all of those times that still were so vivid in my mind of me begging her not leave me. I remembered the frostbite that formed on my cheeks and nose when she left me in the cold without proper clothing; the drenching I received from downpours; the thirst from heat and just the day without water. I could almost still feel the hunger pains. I remembered begging her so many times not to leave me, but she left anyway because her drugs meant more to her than I ever did.

So, I ignored her pleading and started toward the door. Shin lingered for a moment and I thought that he might have things to say. But, he seemed to decide that he didn’t care and he followed me.

We passed through the living room and saw a pair of boys playing with some toys. They were that woman’s sons. She had sons. She had a husband. She had a life and she had moved on from the fact that she had lost that little thing, Trinket Bane, in a mall some years ago. It was all right. I did the same.

I knew I couldn’t assume what was going on in her heart or in her mind when she left me, but I knew how I felt and that was enough for me to never think of her again. I knew how she treated me when she did have me and that was enough for me to move on. I knew what I went through with her and that was enough for me to consider her a stranger. I also knew about the moves that she made after losing me and that only let me know that I was never important to her and she never cared about me. That woman was never my mother. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Shin)

I was a bit surprised with the way that we left. I didn’t expect to stay long, but other than that, I didn’t know what to expect. I know I didn’t expect “that woman” to look like Trin. I had always thought that the harpy looked like her mother, my Aunt. They had the same shaped face and almost the same eyes. Hell, I still think they look alike. Aunt Ann is Trin’s mother.

I wanted to say something to _that woman_. But, I just didn’t know where to start and I doubted that I would end if I did get started. I wanted to brag, but that didn’t seem to be the reason that Trin was there. So, I just left with her because I couldn’t get my head together enough to curse _that_ _woman_ out or something that I should’ve done. Maybe if I had known this was the last time I’d see her, I would’ve mustered some kind of words.

Trin must’ve known I was curious about almost everything that went down and that was discussed because once we were in the car, she started talking without me saying a word. She might not have been in the right emotional state to drive, I thought, but that didn’t stop her.

She talked about when she used to live with _that_ _woman_. She was obviously very traumatized by a great deal of it because she could remember a lot of things from back when she was like three years old. I couldn’t remember that far back, except for a couple of things that mentally scarred me, like going through a carwash. I thought it was going to eat us, all right. I was only three.

Trin talked about not being able to sleep a great deal of the time back then because she was afraid of being eaten by the rats that were in the apartment. She wasn’t even scared of the rats, but she said that one time she woke up on the smelly mattress that she had to sleep on and found them gnawing on her. There was nothing else to it in the place it seemed and she tried to make a joke about the rats getting to her before she got the idea to get to them. I couldn’t imagine waking up one morning to find I was breakfast for such disgusting rodents.

I also couldn’t imagine my parents allowing me to live such appalling conditions. We never had bugs or things in our house, so I couldn’t imagine having rats. I couldn’t see how she could sleep under such conditions.

She then talked about when _that woman_ used to leave her places, like corners or benches or doorways or just about anywhere she could. She said that if she was near a trashcan, she’d actually go through it for something decent to eat because there was hardly ever any food in the apartment. She had learned to go for a few days without food as a toddler because if she complained of hunger, pain followed the compliant.

Apparently, _that woman_ used to be a drug addict. I wasn’t really surprised by that after hearing about all the other stuff. I couldn’t imagine a parent without some kind of serious problem doing these things to her child. But, Trin said that she had just gotten clean. I didn’t ask how Trin knew that.

Trin always was a research nut, so she more than likely dug up everything she could about _that woman_ before going to see her. Trin found that she mattered so much to _that woman_ that it took her years to report that Trin was missing. She had just gone on, like it was nothing that she lost Trin, like it was nothing that she had lost her own daughter. I could barely fathom such a thing.

I was stunned that my evil twin didn’t plot some sort of revenge for _that woman_ , but I think she just wanted to close that part of her life. I know I would. I wouldn’t even want to think about any of that ever again. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Trin)

I spilled it all to Shin because that would be the reason that I keep him around. Well, it would be one of the reasons. He was a trashcan for my grief. Sometimes, I feared that I might kill him just from telling me all of my burdens. He might die at a young age, not from his insanity, but because hearing and bearing of my problems. I would be the thing to crush him, destroy him.

I knew Shin liked to be included in my life as much as possible, as I liked to be with him. Perhaps, one day, we’d just kill each other from all of our stress and insanity, I considered. Other than my past though, nothing seemed quite as heavy and we should always be able to carry that.

I never did see _that woman_ again and I didn’t want to. I wasn’t her daughter and I never would be. I was and would always be a Possible. I would always be thankful for that, too. Though they say that you can’t pick your family, mine picked me and I would always and forever appreciate that, even if I act out. 

-8-8-8-8-

Next time: they pay a visit to Trin’s father.


	10. Gold digger

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own these characters except for Trin, Shin, and Tatsu. Disney owns everyone else and if they don’t, the character probably isn’t very important.

10: Gold digger

(Trin)

Our next stop on our road trip, as Shin insisted on seeing the journey, was to see _that_ _man_. I had never felt a connection _that_ _man_. He had been in and out of my four years of life with him and _that_ _woman_. The moments he was “in” were not good ones. I just wanted to show him what I grew up into. I wanted him to see that I wasn’t so small anymore. I wanted him to see that and I wanted him to think on it. I wanted him to know that I was out there and that I could find him. I wanted to just let him ponder that and what it could mean.

Shin looked surprised when we arrived at the house. I know he had to be sick of being shocked that weekend. After all, he was supposed to be the unpredictable one and, yet, here I was, the boring one, making his eyes bug out. The thing was that _that_ _man_ lived in a nice suburban home with a gate and wall and things to keep out riffraff, which we were. Well, we were riffraff trained to get into places where we weren’t wanted. Uncle Shin taught us all sorts of things and we were always doing independent study to learn more. So, we easily got to the front door after I parked the car.

“Did he steal the house?” Shin asked, but his voice was distant, so I doubt he wanted a response.

I took care of knocking on the door while Shin busied himself looking around the huge yard. He was probably hoping that they released dogs or something to entertain him with making our task just a little more difficult. A maid answered the door and wanted to know what we wanted. She was rather rude to us. I was rude in return and she shut the door in our faces. We didn’t even flinch. Shin smirked; apparently, he was now entertained.

“And I thought today was going to be boring,” he commented with a snicker.

We broke into the house rather easily and gave ourselves a tour. It was a very nice house and Shin looked rather curious as to why that was. I informed him what was going on and all he could state was “lucky bastard” in response.

“Hey, do you think this is an original?” Shin asked, pointing to a painting.

“We’re not shopping,” I reminded him.

“C’mon. You know you wanna take it,” he teased.

I rolled my eyes and continued on. He trotted off behind me after a few seconds of undoubtedly contemplating if he should take the painting or not. We made our way to a den or perhaps a study and started looking around. It was there that the little discourteous maid busted us.

The maid threatened to call the police on us since we have broken in. Shin wasn’t paying her much mind, but he still laughed a bit. It was an absent sound, but I knew that he was amused by the notion of the authorities showing up. This was not something I wanted to happen, as it would just be more annoying and it was irksome enough that I had to see _that_ _man_.

I informed the stupid maid that it would be best for her to just get the man of the house before some information slipped out and all sorts of terrible things started to happen. She reluctantly obeyed after I included some terrible things that would happen to her if she continued to behave as if she owned the house when she was nothing more than the help. I feel like she knew her employers had secrets that they didn’t want to come out from the way she slinked out of the room.

“Hey, this is a good looking guy,” Shin commented while picking up a photo of a young man. For a moment, I feared that he was looking at _that_ _man_ , but he was not. I nearly sighed in relief.

“Focus,” I scolded him. Shin would probably think about handsome men most of the time if I weren’t around. Well, probably do more than think, which wouldn’t bother me if I could just stay in my room with books forever.

He made a face at me and started searching through things. I could care less than nothing about what he was doing, as long as he didn’t steal anything too valuable. The man of the house entered the room and he looked offended by Shin’s actions, which would be understandable if any of those things were truly his. I called attention to me since I was the reason everything was going down. I blocked his view of my curious evil twin.

“Mr. Bane,” I stated, just to let him know that I was the one he should be concerned with.

“I am,” he replied, clearly taking my words for the question that they were not. He had a dreadfully average voice. He was an average looking fellow, nothing outstanding about him. At least when I was smaller, he had some sharpness to him, but now he was nothing.

He hid his plainness under an expensive, tailored suit. He was clearly enjoying this upper class lifestyle. Well, his quaint life was about to get shaken a little.

Shin looked up to see what that man looked like. Once he was undoubtedly satisfied with his common face, Shin turned back to his busywork. I had no doubt that Shin was looking for things worth stealing. No, we’re not below stealing certain things from certain people. We used to rob Doctor Director all of the time. She probably knows that every stress-relief toy that she ever had is sitting in a box in Shin’s closet and she’s just waiting for the right moment to tell us and cause us the proper amount of embarrassment. We hardly ever stole things relevant to us.

“And who are you?” _that_ _man_ asked, glaring at me with dark eyes. He looked much better than _that_ _woman_. He had a lot of cosmetic surgery, though, including having teeth implants.

“I’m Trin and he’s Shin. I’d like to talk to you and he’d like to stand in the background,” I informed him while pointing to Shin.

“I was told you claim to have some information that might cause bad things to happen. What kind of information are you talking about?” he demanded, stepping closer to me, probably to intimidate me.

“Your past,” I said in my usual tone, but much more bored than usual. I admit that I got no pleasure in taunting him. It was strange, I thought I would enjoy making him sweat immediately, but that was not the case.

He frowned. “What about it?” he asked, eyes tracking Shin for a second.

“Well, there’s your addiction, which isn’t much news, even though not too many people know about it. There’s also the domestic violence, child abuse, petty thief, I can go on if you like. Perhaps with your rich wife in the room,” I replied with a nonchalant shrug.

He frowned deeper. It would seem I struck a cord. Score one for me. My joy began to crawl out of a hole and let me know that the day would not be as unfulfilling as it seemed. He wanted to know what I wanted and Shin laughed. I chuckled a bit myself and asked if I could sit down while taking a seat in a nearby leather armchair, crossing my legs, one over the other. Shin seemed to be having a lot of fun going through things lined across the wall.

Mr. Bane wanted to know how I knew about his past. I didn’t lie. I didn’t see the point in lying to him. I told him I was the little girl that he used to slap around when she asked for food. I was the child he used to punch to get me to stop crying. I was the child that he used to threaten to throw out of the window if I didn’t go to sleep. I was the child he didn’t want, but loved to hate. I was that child and he just frowned deeper.

“So, what do you want? Money?” he asked, practically spitting on me.

Shin laughed again, earning a glance from _that_ _man_. It was like that man had told a good joke. It was funny. I doubted that he could comprehend what I wanted from him and when I told him just what it was, he was incredulous. He looked so lost.

“I don’t want anything,” I stated. I didn’t want or need anything tangible from him. Shin and I already had money of our own, lots of it and we were also spoiled. We could whine to our parents about needing something and they would make it happen, if it was within reason anyway.

“What do you mean?” he asked in a baffled tone with an arched eyebrow.

What would I want from him? He was a man that used to have fun knocking me or _that_ _woman_ around the apartment, so what would I want from him? Why would I want anything from him? I smirked at him because I knew just what I wanted.

I wanted to make him nervous. I wanted to frighten him. I wanted him to know that I was out there and possibly plotting some kind of revenge against him, which I might get around to any day now unless he beats me to it.

“I’m not interested in anything from you. I just wanted to see how well you’ve done for yourself. You meet some fascinating people in rehab, I’ve noticed. She was into pills, wasn’t she? How dull,” I commented, glancing around the room. I was referring to his current wife and he knew that.

“I did pills once,” Shin said out of the blue. He more than likely just wanted my attention, which I had no problem giving him for a moment.

“Chewable vitamins don’t count,” I teased my best friend without bothering to look at him because I knew that he was making some ridiculous face.

“What do you want? How do I make you go away?” Mr. Bane inquired.

His wife might have been aware of his drug use, but all of the other things would be wonderful surprises more than likely. I would have other items to share with her, as well. He would lose this very cozy life his new “love” provided him.

Shin scoffed. “If only it was that easy.”

“What the hell does that mean? I don’t even have to take this shit. Even if you are that stupid brat, it’s your word against mine. She wouldn’t believe you,” Mr. Bane declared with a triumphant smile.

Shin snickered and I smirked. “Really? You think I don’t have more than my word.”

Mr. Bane’s eye twitched. “What could you possibly have?”

I shrugged. “Photographs. Sure, not of child abuse, but you’re out with women who look nothing like your wife.”

And this was it for him. “How the fuck did you get that?”

“That is of no consequence.”

“How the hell do I make you go away then?” he demanded through gritted teeth.

“You don’t. I go away only when I feel like it. I’m sort of like a curse. You can’t bribe me because I don’t want anything that you have. I don’t want your wife’s money and you can’t shut me up if I ever do decide to say something. Maybe one day I’ll call the house out of the blue or go to her office. I could always use a good lawyer. She and I could have such a nice, long talk. Who knows what I might do or what I might show her. I do know that I’ll do whatever I feel like, whatever comes to mind on a whim sometimes. Whatever I feel like doing and I don’t care what my actions do to you,” I stated. It was very much the truth.

“Now, you listen here, little girl—” he started in a rather disagreeable tone and my evil twin decided to interject. I was going to let him finish, just to give myself an excuse to crucify him my next free moment.

“Sir, I would choose my words very carefully if I were you. She’s not the harpy you want to idly threaten. That bitch has sharp talons on her,” Shin warned him. And people thought I was the rude one.

I narrowed my eyes, daring _that_ _man_ with an expression I perfected for him to continue on. Mr. Bane wisely said nothing and gulped. Apparently, he wasn’t as stupid as I first assumed. Had he continued on threatening me, I would’ve felt insulted and then I wouldn’t have hesitated in acting against him as soon as we left. In fact, had he finished his threat, I had no doubt that Shin would’ve started plotting once the last word left his mouth.

“Now, we’re going to leave and you can go back to exploiting your wife’s money and having ‘secret’ affairs behind her back. Perhaps we’ll see you again,” I said and then we left, peacefully.

Perhaps, one day, I might just get revenge on _that_ _man_ , but I was content to leave him thinking about it. He had things now and I could possibly take those away from him with a simple phone call. Doing such a thing might just make up for some of the times that he had hit me back then. I always knew nothing would make up for all of the times that he hit me, hurt me, terrorized me, but I could try to return the favor.

I did consider that by showing up, I was warning him and he could attack me before I got to him. I would prefer that. Counterattacking wouldn’t be so bad and it would prove that he was still a prick. I wouldn’t feel bad at all taking everything that he had if he came at me. His pretty wife and all of her professional money flying away from him, it might be interesting to watch. It could prove fun. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Shin) 

In the car, Trin appeared to be normal. I wasn’t sure if she was putting up a very good front or if she was just all right with what happened. After all, _that_ _man_ was her biological father and he had shown no want for her, no signs of missing her, nothing. In fact, all he wanted to do was make her go away again. What the fuck was wrong with these people?

I decided to try to make her feel better, just in case it was a front. I turned to her and held up a choice cigar. I had stolen all of the man’s cigars, as he had some prime stogies. We had a smoke on him. It was probably the last time that we smoked, too. I saved the rest of the cigars, figuring I could use them for bribes somewhere. We then went to have a bit of fun to wipe away the seriousness of the weekend.

We went and brought some computer junk to make my lie believable and to take the edge away. Trin bought gifts for her siblings and parents. I can’t say that the trip made her appreciate them more because that would just be impossible. She appreciated the hell out of them already and I’m sure they knew that. So, she might have just been in a spending mood.

I do know that when we got back home, she seriously hugged everyone. By that time, she had been well set in ways of detesting touching and her failure to see the point in hugging had caused her to give up the practice, so it was a big deal for her to embrace everyone. Even the twins understood the magnitude of being hugged by Trin and just accepted it rather than huffing about it being mushy.

Everyone was surprised and curious as to why they were being hugged by the harpy, which was understandable. Hell, I would’ve been scared if Trin hugged me out of the blue. My dad even made a joke about it being the end of the world. I got all bent out of shape because I was the only one not hugged, which probably helped fan the whispered flame that she and I were a secret couple. Trin hugged me because of all my noise and she hurt my back. The damned harpy. She did it on purpose.

We never brought up “those people who created” her again. I never saw a point in talking about them and Trin just never thought about them again it would seem. She does have a great family and she probably doesn’t see a reason to be bitter. She probably doesn’t want to waste the energy on something so pointless. She’s grateful for her family and she probably considers herself lucky to have them. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Trin)

I am lucky to be a Possible. I could’ve been dead or any number of things when I was younger. Instead I was taken in by a great family and accepted by them. And while I may have some demons, I have always believed that I will conquer them all one day because I have such a great family and so much support from them. It just takes time.

After coming into contact with those people who created me, I was able to let loose just a bit more. I could let go of some of the bitterness, ache, and anger. I could finally assure myself that those people didn’t matter to me in any way. I could let most of the past go. I could let me my past fade with them. I actually, literally, physically felt better. 

-8-8-8-8-

Next time: Trin’s reaction to Kim being a hero. Some words are exchanged that leave both of their egos wounded.


	11. Flesh of my flesh

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own these characters, except for Trin, Shin, and Tatsu. Everybody else is all Disney.

11: Flesh of my flesh

(Kim)

Everything that I do in life, I want my sister’s approval. I want Trin to think of it as if I accomplished something or that I made a good move. I guess I want to impress her or something like that.

I’ve just always been that way and I know it’s because she always paid such close attention to me. I’ve always liked that attention. It always made me feel so special. I mean, she was older than I was and whenever a big kid takes an interest in a little kid, the little kid likes that. I was no different and Trin always made it seem like I was the greatest thing in the world to her.

So, when I decided that I was going to be a hero, I wanted her approval. I didn’t get it. It was the first time that Trin ever looked at me as if she was disappointed in me and it hurt me when I saw that expression in her eyes. It hurt me a lot.

I told Trin about my first mission. She happened to be doing grunt work for Global Justice at the time and missed me in action. I gave her all the details, so she knew how awesome I was. I told her how it was fun to help someone in need and if I got the chance I would do it again because I really liked it. I thought she’d be thrilled because she used to come to my aid all the time and she did work for Global Justice a lot of the time. So, I was expecting her to be psyched about my plan. Silly me.

She looked at me with a dull, almost bored expression in her eyes. My enthusiasm wasn’t working on her for once, which left me with an odd, empty feeling in my stomach. She then gave me her cynical side, a side I hardly ever saw and it never was directed at me when I did see it, and she wanted to know why I would risk my neck for people that didn’t care about me. She thought that it was foolish for me to want to help people that didn’t know me, that didn’t care about me.

I argued with her for maybe the first time where the argument was serious. I was so hurt that she had actually called my idea “foolish.” That was actually the word she used. I pointed out how she helped people all the time when she did things for GJ. She scoffed and informed me that she didn’t do those things out of the kindness of her heart. She did them so she could avoid going to jail or to make up for doing something that she wasn’t supposed. I then pointed out all of the times that she saved me and all she did was counter with of course she would save me. I was her baby sister.

I was debating against the wrong person, but that didn’t occur to me. Trin might as well be a lawyer with the way she went about arguments. She always had something to counter anything that anybody said, myself included, especially that day.

I hated how calm she was with arguing; she was calm about everything. I eventually uttered some words that hurt her feelings. I probably was just looking to hurt her back since I couldn’t win the stupid argument. I called her a shrew. I actually used the word “shrew,” which showed that I listened to Shin too much. I then said that nobody liked her because she was so negative and mistrusting and I didn’t care what she thought, which was a ferociously huge lie.

I said some other things that I don’t remember. I just wanted her to feel how I felt. I do know that I succeeded in hurting her feelings like she hurt mine. I could see it in her eyes, which seemed to crack with each new thing I said. I stormed out of the room once I was done and left her frowning to herself. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Trin)

I suppose it was a bit insensitive for me to tell my impressionable little sister that her idea was outright foolish. For once, I hadn’t thought before I spoke. I let my mouth get ahead of my brain. I couldn’t believe that I just blurted something like that out, as it was very unlike me. I always carefully weighed my words before using them, especially when it came to my little redheaded clone. I was just worried about her. She could get hurt or worse helping people that didn’t even care about her. I hadn’t gone about showing this in the proper way, obviously.

I was more upset with myself than with her and her words, even though they did sting a bit. She wasn’t so good with biting words, which I suppose would be a good thing. She did show that the things other people said about me stuck with her, though. I hope she hasn’t been scarred and just hiding it well.

I wasn’t sure what I should do about Kim now that I had upset her. It wasn’t a problem I usually caused, so I wasn’t accustomed to dealing with it. I decided to go talk to my mother about it. She was always loaded with decent and practical advice.

My mother knew why I needed to talk before I even said anything. Apparently, Kim had beaten me to our fountain of wisdom. My mother thought that I needed some cuddling before anything else because of Kim’s words, but I didn’t really need it because they weren’t particularly scathing words. I accepted it because I, like most other mammalian creatures on the planet, like some affection from my mother every now and then despite my age. Even with my thing about touching, it was nice and secure to have my mother’s arms around me.

After that, my mother addressed the issue by suggesting that I apologize, which made me frown. I was out of practice when it came to apologizing because I had been brought up to almost never apologize. It was mostly to due to what happened in my early school years.

In school, they used to force me to apologize after beating up bullies that were attempting to do something to me or even to Kim. My parents hated that the school used to do that. They felt it was sending me the message that I shouldn’t defend myself or defend my sister. They also felt like it sent the message that the kids’ bullying me was somehow my fault. So, they started telling me that I shouldn’t apologize if I didn’t mean it. Since I typically did things on purpose whether they were good or bad, I stopped apologizing altogether.

My mother noticed that I was frowning and jokingly suggested that I could always just leave Kimmie angry with me. She knew I couldn’t do that. I sighed because of the horrible options left to me. It certainly did teach me to always think before I spoke. It wasn’t a hard decision to make, though.

I practically crawled upstairs to Kim’s room, acting like I had thousand pound weights holding me back because of what I had to do. She had her door shut and usually I would knock, but I knew that she didn’t want to see me at the moment. So, if I took the time out of my life to knock, she would’ve told me to get lost or something far worse. Therefore, there was no point to knocking.

There were not many times through out her life where Kim wouldn’t let me in her room. The first time she had been really little and was trying to wrap a gift for me for my birthday on her own, which had been a perfect problem for her and the gift looked more mangled than wrapped. Another time was when she cut her own hair and that was a commendable mess that required our mother to fix. I had stuck around for moral support. The most recent time that she had locked me out of her room was when she had gotten her braces. She was under the impression that she was ugly and didn’t want anyone to see her. Bonnie was the one that had her thinking such nonsense, which I cleared up immediately.

I entered the room without permission and discovered Kim on the phone, whining to Ronald of all people. I had bothered her to the point where she was telling Ronald our business. It was a bit disappointing, but I never said such. Maybe it was because I was more disappointed in myself than in her. It wasn’t that I hated Ronald or anything like that, but it was something that happened between Kim and myself. I wouldn’t run to Shin and whine to him about something that happened to between me and her and I expected the same from her. It was between us and we should always be able to talk things out in time without other parties, unless the other party is our mother, or in dire straits, our father.

I disconnected the call almost immediately. I pulled the wire right out of the jack. Needless to say, I received an absolutely dreadful look from my baby sister. I suppose it was nice that she didn’t throw the phone at me.

“Trin!” Kim hollered at me as if I had shot her phone right out of her hand. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Kim)

Trin burst into my room and just yanked my phone line right out of the wall as if that was cool. She was such a drama queen. I probably gave her a look that oozed venom because I was really angry with her. I ordered her to leave, but she ignored me, which I would have expected if I weren’t so pissed at her.

Trin came and sat down next to me. She looked around and sighed. I was about to start pushing her to get out, but when she looked at me, I couldn’t move. She took my hand and apologized for upsetting me, which really paralyzed me. I was so stunned that my mouth was hanging open.

She then gave me a little half smile. It was about as big as she ever smiled by that time. I wondered why she was smiling, especially after apologizing. I knew she hated to apologize. But, then she started to explain herself.

Trin told me how she couldn’t believe I was growing up already. She was used to be being the hero and protecting me, but now I was planning to be a real hero. I was stepping out on my own, not being her little clone anymore. I wondered if she was sad about it, like it meant I wasn’t going to be her baby sister anymore.

She then said that what I was planning to do, it was admirable. I was skeptical for a moment or two, maybe more. I asked why she had called it foolish if it was suddenly so admirable. She had no problem explaining that one.

It was her personal belief that helping the masses that didn’t care about was foolish because she didn’t see the point in helping those that she didn’t know. The admirable thing to her was that I didn’t think like that, that I wasn’t going to be selfish or indulgent with my skills, which she believed she was. I didn’t think she was selfish or indulgent, but that was my belief. She said that it was admirable that I believed I was capable, that I had faith in myself. She explained that she had faith in me as well, but she worried sometimes. It was like she didn’t know she was one of the reasons I was that way. It was admirable because she was certain that I would be exactly what I wanted to be.

“You’re just saying that,” I grumbled, mostly because I was embarrassed. My cheeks burned, so I knew I was blushing as bright as my hair. I didn’t think she thought so highly of me and I didn’t know that she admired me like I did her.

Trin only half smiled again. She never “just said” things and she made sure to remind me of that. Trin was always honest, so I believed her when she said I would be a hero. If I did my best, I believed I could do anything and she believed that, too. Besides, I knew if I hit a bump in the road, I could ask for her help.

I did my best when people started requesting my help, but I ran into a problem early on. I needed to get to far away places really fast and the only form of a ride I had was a bike. Getting rides around Middleton wasn’t hard, but getting a ride to the Himalayas was another sitch altogether. That was when having Trin for a sister came in extra-handy.

Although she didn’t agree with my freelance heroing, especially with no money being involved, she had no problem with pitching in to help make me a success. She had favors and she called in for me. This was how I got my first rides. Even though Trin only had one friend and was extremely antisocial, plenty of people owed her for some reason or another. I built my favors from her favors. She claimed she didn’t need them anyway. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Trin)

Yes, I had my problem with my little sister going out to save idiots that wouldn’t do the same for her, but it was what she wanted to do with her life. I had faith in her to do a splendid job and had no problem with helping her accomplish her goals in any manner that I could. At least she was trying to do good in the world. I did wonder why our parents were okay with such madness, though.

Dad had a simple answer that told me he was pretty much okay with us doing anything. He said “at least she’s not out with a boy” and he was serious. It seemed as if that was the first thing that came into his mind whenever we did something crazy, at least lately anyway. I would wonder if he will be the same way with the twins, but I doubt it. A son couldn’t come home pregnant, after all.

It also told me that Dad didn’t consider Ronald “a boy” since Kim was always out with him, much like he didn’t consider Shin “a boy” since I was always out with him. After doing what I did with Shin, though I did watch Kim and Ronald a bit more closely when they hit their teens. After all, Kim was always a bit boy crazy and I considered that she might decide to experiment with Ronald. The notion still makes me cringe.

My mother was a bit deeper in her explanation since she lacked the one-track mind answer of “at least she’s not out with a boy” to fall back on. I doubt it would’ve bothered Mom much if Kim was out with a boy. I’m fairly sure that it was Mom that started the suspicion that there was something going on between me and Shin, which was accurate for about a minute, but she wasn’t so against us being with boys.

Anyway, the point that my mother made was that the Possible family had a long history of doing extraordinary and amazing things. Kim was just doing what was in her blood, much like me whenever I started with my computers or chemistry. I pointed out that I couldn’t get killed on a computer or in a lab. She countered with I could end up in jail, but it wasn’t likely. Kim could be killed, but it wasn’t likely. She then told me not to worry because Kim had a competent role model and was just as capable as her hero. I told Mom to stop trying to sweet talk me, even though it worked like a charm. I was just too easy sometimes and from the smile on my mother’s face, she was very aware of that.

Now, during that conversation, it didn’t go unnoticed by me that my mother said I had was doing what was in my blood, as if I had Possible blood in me, as if to say I was a Possible by blood. I didn’t think it was feasible at the time, but in retrospect, I realized that my parents seemed to forget that I wasn’t biologically linked to the family in any way. But, they looked at me as their blood, like Kim, like the twins. Had I noticed that sooner, it would’ve eased my abandonment issues more than likely. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Kim)

I was glad that Mom talked to Trin to get her to stop worrying about me. Now I knew how Trin felt when she went out on a mission with Auntie Tashawna. It was like she said, I was growing up and she needed to trust me a little more out on my own. At least I knew she was trying.

I did try to get Trin and Shin to come on a few missions with me, to see I was fine and because I thought they’d have fun. Shin was all for going. It never took much to sell him on an idea where pain and fighting were involved. Add in the possibility of dying and Shin would’ve beaten me to the mission if he could have. Trin seemed to be offended by the very idea of going somewhere where she might see Ron lose his pants.

Trin also didn’t see the point in going out to help people that she didn’t know, even if it meant saving the world. She told me she wasn’t leaving her room if money wasn’t at the end of the trip. Shin eventually gave into that idea, too, wondering why in the hell he would go some place where he might actually save people when he could chill with Trin, make money, and maybe go some place where he would have to save people, but he would forced to do it. I eventually took the hint and just stopped inviting them. I think it was also Trin’s way of saying she didn’t want me to think she was there to babysit me, which she probably would have done.

Trin is overprotective, plain and simple. If she had gone on a mission with me, she probably would’ve done everything while making sure I stood behind her. It wasn’t something against me. It was just she worried, just like Aunt Tashawna did with her and Shin on their first mission.

For a while I didn’t think Trin approved and that was why she didn’t want to go out on a mission with me. I mean, even though she supported me and everything, it still seemed like she was against the idea and one day she proved me wrong. One day, just out of the blue, she came up behind me and hugged me. She said she was proud of me and of all the good work that I was doing. She told me that I was her hero. I was speechless and all I could do was continue on with what I was doing because I wanted her to always be proud of me. I liked the feeling and I wanted to keep it. Mission accomplished so far. 

-8-8-8-8-

Next time: Tatsu and Trin meet and it just ain’t pretty.


	12. Tune up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own these characters, except for Trin, Shin, and Tatsu. Everybody else goes to Disney.

12: Tune up

(Trin)

The car, which we generally call mine, was a graduation gift for both me and Shin. So, it was really our car. It was just that at the time, Shin was more trustworthy with napalm than behind the wheel of an automobile. He still isn’t all that great in a car. It’s a mystery how he got his license. He jokingly tells me he blew the guy conducting a test, but there are serious moments when I feel this is the only way to explain how he has state permission to operate a vehicle. He didn’t care because he didn’t like driving and he didn’t need to drive anyway. The logic behind was that he and I were always together, so I was the driver and he was the parasite, I mean, he was the passenger.

Now, my parents took care of transportation since they were the ones that bought us the car. Shin’s parents took care of getting us a nice apartment near our school. Both gifts were undoubtedly hotly debated among the parents for a number of reasons, one being that my father didn’t like the idea of me living with Shin hours away from them. I’m sure no one liked the idea of Shin possibly driving. I’m guessing that eventually the weaker arguments prevailed. I can’t see how allowing us to live together wasn’t the weaker argument. I could definitely keep a better eye on Shin and keep him from killing himself if we lived together.

We were fine with the apartment, but we were hard on that poor car very quickly. The little idiot Shin tried to take it apart one day for no reason and that started all sorts of problems. I was driving it shortly after that and it was making all kinds of noises. I blamed Shin, of course. We were thankfully still in Middleton and Shin boasted of knowing an excellent mechanic.

He bragged that the mechanic worked on street racers. I don’t know why he bragged about such a thing. He then went into explaining how he knew about the mechanic and if I wasn’t so used to his stories, I would’ve thrown up. The things that Shin did with just about any guy willing to give him a try always amazed me.

I decided to go see what the mechanic was all about because as much as I knew about machines, I was still very much a stereotypical blonde girl when it came to cars. I didn’t know a thing about cars, so I didn’t have much of a choice. Little did either of us know what his connections would lead to. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Tatsu)

I had never met an outcast that dressed like her. She came to my garage wearing her favorite colors, pink and yellow. She had on a pink skirt and a sweater vest with a yellow button-down shirt on underneath the vest. Her shoes had to cost more than everything I had on. I didn’t even want to talk to her, let alone listen to her because she looked like such a high-class bitch, but she wouldn’t go away once she showed up. Great, not only was she preppy, but annoying too. Just screwed my whole day up.

For two hours, she wouldn’t leave once she was in the garage and I had work to do. I finally cracked after two hours because I wasn’t used to being around a person that long and I wanted her to get the hell out of my space. It was my damn space, after all. So, I agreed to fix her piece of crap car and, boy was it a piece of crap. To me, it seemed she all but shot the engine with a machine gun.

I hoped that I wouldn’t see her again after that. I didn’t want to be around some snobbish bitch because I just couldn’t stand posh whores like that. I’d been in the company of enough vapid assholes to know I wanted to avoid them for the rest of my life. But, as luck would have it, I did see her again. I was quickly learning to hate her.

She came back a few months later. I thought it was weird that I remembered her exactly, even though she was different from the usual people I dealt with, so I can see why she’d stand out in my mind. I still didn’t want her business. She tried that silent protesting crap again, where she wouldn’t leave, but I wasn’t ready to put up with that.

I decided to get rid of her like I would any other person that bothered me. I went to beat her up, thinking it should be easy with her being some high-class blonde. Bad move on my part.

She toyed with me during that fight. She looked a little amused when I came at her and she probably was. She wasn’t smiling or nothing, but I could see it in her eyes that she was probably laughing at me on the inside.

She didn’t even bother with hitting me. Most of her moves were grabs and things to keep me from hitting her. She probably figured that I definitely wouldn’t fix her car if she hit me and she was right. Had she hit me, I wouldn’t have done shit for her ever again. I didn’t care how much money she would’ve been trying to talk. But, she didn’t embarrass me and I guess I appreciated that fact. So, I fixed her car again.

The third time, I was annoyed with her showing up again. I was so sick of her. I tried to think of a way to get rid of her that was quick and wouldn’t have me making an ass out of myself again like when I went to fight her.

The kiss was an impulse, but once I was there, I figured that a prim girl like her would run away screaming after being kissed by an oily mechanic that was the same sex as her. It seemed like every guess I made about her was just plain wrong.

Well, how the hell was I supposed to know she was a lesbian? It wasn’t like she was wearing a nametag that said so. Damn it, I was just so wrong about her. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Trin)

Something very strange happened when Tatsu kissed me and it was just that a usual thought that drifted through my head was missing. I had been kissed a few times after my magic moment with Shin, but all of my kissing experiences after that were terrible in essence. I just couldn’t enjoy it because one: I hated touching and two: all I could think about while I kissed a girl was wondering where the hell her mouth had been prior to touching me. I actually believed that kissing was one of the most disgusting and vile forms of touching ever fathomed. I used to wonder who the hell it was that thought to put their tongue into another human being’s filthy mouth. It seemed like it should’ve been a way to pass on plagues, not show affection.

There was something different about kissing Tatsu. It might have helped that she thankfully hadn’t put her tongue in my mouth. We probably would’ve been fighting had she even tried to put her tongue in my mouth. I would’ve at least pushed her away if she had done that. But, she didn’t and there was something about the fact that she had come at me all the while knowing that I could kick her ass if I ever chose to do so. There was something about that action that spoke to me. It said bold, daring, and who-knows-what else, so I allowed her to kiss me.

Now, I was disgusted by her kiss, but I wasn’t wondering where the hell she had been like with other girls. Now, one might wonder why I allowed her to continue if I was so disgusted and that was because I was impressed. I was also curious as to how far she would take her actions because I knew that she wasn’t coming at out of anything more than the fact that she was trying to get me away from her. What was she willing to do to get rid of me?

I surrendered myself to whatever devious plan Tatsu had worked out and wanted to do because I was fascinated by her actions, maybe even her intentions. I wanted to see where she was going and how serious she was about it. Would she dare continue if I allowed her to or would she chicken out and just fix my car? I suppose this was a test of wills. Who would blink first, me from being touched or her for realizing what she was doing?

She seemed to sense that I was challenging her to keep going and so, she did. I think that surprised me quite a bit. I really didn’t think she would keep going, but I guess she showed me. Despite the fact that I had given her free range over my body, she wasn’t rough with me.

But, she wasn’t gentle either. Nothing that she did was for my enjoyment, which was another thing that caught my twisted interest. Everything she did was for her. She touched my body and got pleasure from it. It wasn’t that she was getting pleasure in hurting me because she wasn’t hurting me. She was getting pleasure from touching and tasting me, much like a person would do to a piece of fruit. It wasn’t something that I understood and that was why I was curious and that was how I got hooked. I wanted to comprehend why she liked my body so much. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Tatsu)

I didn’t know until Trin that I was into women. I had had boyfriends before and I liked them, as much as I could like people anyway. Constant company was never really my thing. I hadn’t considered that I liked women, but after I had Trin that first time, I wanted her again and again.

It bothered me for a while to be attracted to her and it wasn’t because she was a girl. She just looked like such a posh bitch and I should’ve hated her with all of the fucking passion I could muster because of that. I just hated anybody that was stuck-up and I thought she was like that. I did use that as an excuse to feed my attraction.

The next time she came by, I went at her again. I told myself it was because I liked having power over such a high-class slut. In my mind, Trin merely became my whore, my toy, especially since she submitted to me so easily. She was my bitch to do whatever I pleased.

I wanted her to know what I thought of her, too, and I wanted her to know just what she was, so after a while I started ordering her to say that she was my bitch and she would, too. She would openly declare herself my bitch, my whore, my property while I had my way with her. It was an amazing thing and it probably stopped at the right time. I think it was going to my head and I was actually starting to think I controlled her. It was her choice to submit to me. I didn’t really have any power.

What brought everything to a halt? Well, Trin broke our little routine. It worked where she’d come in with her car, I’d do whatever the hell I wanted to her for a little while, and then dismiss her to work on her car. One day, she came in and I went at her as usual, but she didn’t give in. She stopped me and she asked if I wanted to go to dinner with her. At that moment, every wall I had in me went up and I was suspicious of her.

I lashed out her pretty hard and demanded to know why a prim bitch like her wanted to go to dinner with me for. I didn’t know she was the town’s special whipping girl at the time, obviously. I didn’t know that it was probably easier to break into the damn Pentagon than to get passed all of her walls and make her feel comfortable enough to want to be around me. I definitely didn’t know that my reaction would hurt her so much that I could see it in her eyes.

She didn’t mean to let me see her little emotional slip. It was only there for a second, but I saw it plain as a full moon on a clear night. She composed herself real quick and tried to act like it was all right.

She didn’t stick around after I turned her down, though. I was upset to see her go. I told myself it was just because I wanted to screw her and I tried to leave it at that. But, the look in her eyes stayed on my mind. It haunted me to the point where if I closed my eyes, I could still see the look as if it happened seconds ago. I decided to work on her car to get my mind off of that crap. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Shin)

I had never seen the harpy look do distraught, so absolutely devastated. Apparently, she had gone and got attached to her fuck buddy. I suppose she didn’t consider that someone like her, who was so anti-touch, was bound to get attached when she started letting a person touch her so intimately. But then again, I should’ve had a clue that it was something serious when she started letting that girl touch her, but it didn’t register to my brain.

The fact that Trin, the number one harpy and queen of the shrews, didn’t want to get back at that girl for obviously hurting her feelings in a way that no other person ever had was the thing that got to me. I couldn’t believe that her feelings were hurt, pretty much just lying dead in the streets like road-kill, and we weren’t plotting revenge. I honestly thought that it was the seventh sign and I wasn’t even religious. I started looking out the window for horsemen or whatever the hell is supposed to show up when it’s the apocalypse and then she dragged me back to reality.

She was sniffling from her spot on her bed. I turned to check her out, ready to offer her a tissue or something, thinking her nose was bothering her. Boy, was I off. Ah, damn it, the bitch was crying. I was sure the world was ending that day. It was then that I realized several things.

The first thing was that with Trin, being who she was, sex was actually a big deal. For her to be having sex with that mechanic, there had to be something deep there and I hadn’t thought of that until she started crying. Ah, she was such a woman. To me, sex was always just an activity, like riding a bike or practicing my martial arts or stealing a top-secret satellite for the afternoon. It was something to do and then move onto the next project. With her, it was something that neither of us could even comprehend at the time. Hell, I still don’t really get it.

I then realized that Trin couldn’t have taken that rejection well. The mechanic had made it passed so many walls in that well fortified blonde shell and then probably doubled them by turning the harpy down. She might never interact with humanity again. Humanity was probably cheering.

It was then that I realized I could have to do something and the worst part of that meant that I might soon have to share Trin. I had no problem with sharing her with her siblings. Hey, Kim was there first and I respected that. I could hang around her with her brothers because they’re cool little guys. I didn’t really want to be around when it was just her and Kim. Trin and Kim did girly things when no one was with them. But, that would be different if I succeeded in helping her. Trin could actually gain a girlfriend. How revolting. I suppose it was inevitable.

Well, not inevitable. I never thought Trin would let someone close enough for this sort of a thing to happen. Now, I had to do something about it.

I went to see the mechanic the next day. I didn’t have anything better to do since my evil twin locked herself away in her room. I could only hope she wasn’t crying some more. I went to the garage. I had actually never met Tatsu until that day. I really only heard about her and I saw her a couple of times, but that was about it. I knew some stuff about her, like how she wasn’t supposed to be a lesbian. What is the world coming to when you can’t even trust the rumor mill?

I knew that her forced nickname around town was “the serpent.” Supposedly, she was dangerous or something. I didn’t care about that stuff. I wasn’t there to judge her. I was only there to make her do something about my broken evil twin.

“Tatsu,” I called into the large garage. She stuck her head out of a car that wasn’t Trin’s. She had five cars in the place.

“Yeah,” she replied and then she got a good look at me. “Shin, the racers’ boy toy,” she commented.

“I wouldn’t say I’m their toy,” I replied with a half smirk. I would guess that she knew about me how I knew about her. People around the races talked.

“What do you want?” she asked.

“It’s about Trin.”

She frowned a bit. “What, that’s your bitch or something?” she inquired.

I wanted to say that, yeah, she was my bitch, but not in the same way that she was her bitch. But, that argument was irrelevant. I explained to her that her little toy was my best friend and that seemed to surprise her, but she covered that up pretty well. I didn’t care if she stunned with whom I hung out. My only concern was that my evil twin was locked in her bedroom and possibly still crying. I couldn’t stand that thought.

“Well, if she ain’t your slut, what do you want? What’s the problem?” Tatsu asked, turning away, as if this whole thing bored her. 

“Look, man, I don’t really care that you were fucking Trin on the hood of your cars every time you got the chance. She needed to loosen up, anyway, and I bet you two had fun. My problem is just that she opened up to you and I mean that way beyond spreading her legs. The silly harpy is far from a slut. She’s a fucking prude to be exact. She’s such a prude that you were her first. You took her virginity right here on your shitty, dirty floor and the second that she tried to have a bit more than you doing whatever the fuck you wanted with her, you shut her down. The bitch is so hurt that she isn’t even considering getting your ass back for such disrespect. But, just because her feelings are crushed doesn’t mean I can’t get you back,” I stated, pointing a finger at her.

I had every intention of getting her back, too. I was trying to think of something while standing there. I had to smash her, shatter her, the way she shattered Trin. And then she threw me off by laughing like my promise was joke.

“Shin, what the hell do you think you can do to me? I’ve got a fucking garage and a shack out in the back. You could set them on fire and I wouldn’t give a damn because I could turn anything into a garage, as you can fucking see.” She motioned around what really was a makeshift garage in the skeleton of a crumbling storage area. “I don’t have shit for you to get me back with. So, unless you’re going to kill me, take the bitch’s car and get the fuck out,” Tatsu dismissed me with a wave of her hand. She dismissed me pretty damn well, too, but since it was always hard to embarrass me, I wasn’t too put in my place.

“I can only get the fuck out. I can’t drive… well,” I replied as smoothly as I would anything else. I could see why Trin liked that bitch so much. She had some soul to her. She had spirit. “That’s why the harpy brings that stupid thing. So call her and tell her to pick up the stupid car,” I informed her and then I left.

I was still trying to think of a way to get Tatsu back if she didn’t do right by my evil twin. The thing that struck me was that she had a point. She didn’t really have anything for me to use against her. I could always get funny with her money if she had a bank account, but that was only _if_ she had one. Tatsu seemed like the type that kept all her money in her mattress or something. Well, if she had a mattress, anyway. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Tatsu)

Shin was an asshole as far as I could tell, even though I had heard he was cool from some of the racers. The bastard did leave me thinking about his posh whore, though. I tried to put her out of my mind, but since he told me that I hurt her feelings, I just kept thinking about the look in her eyes.

It didn’t help matters that he told me I was her first. I couldn’t believe that, but it stayed on my mind. I replayed our times together and hated that it kinda seemed like I was her first. I figured she might not be the person I thought she was. After all, she was best friends with a guy that slept with about half of the racers that I knew, most of whom swore they weren’t gay.

I decided to ask around about her and found out she wasn’t anything like I thought, even though nobody had something nice to say about her. Even the town outcasts had shit to say about her. She seriously was the lowest of the low and most people couldn’t even explain why they hated her.

Who knew that she was the town punching bag? I thought she was some blonde bimbo and when she came in for her car, I still imagined her as some flashy, cheerleader type. I just couldn’t see why people would pick on her out of all people.

She didn’t look like she wanted to be at the garage for the first time when she came to get her car. I mean, she generally wasn’t a happy looking person, but she looked miserable that time. There were lines on her face and under her eyes. She didn’t wear much makeup, but she clearly didn’t bother to put any on this trip.

I knew better than to try and go at her, even though I wanted to. I liked that body so much. I liked the way it felt. I liked the way it tasted. I liked the way it shuddered and clenched under my touch. There was something about her, something about her that just made me want to devour her like always, but there was more to it than that.

“So… what should I wear?” I asked out of the blue as she went to her car. It seemed better than apologizing in my opinion.

“Huh?” she replied in a low, dead voice.

“For dinner. What should I wear?” I asked. I was only hoping that the invitation was still on the table. For all I knew, she could’ve been with Shin on plotting my demise, but I needed to see. I didn’t want her out of my life now. I craved her.

She just stared at me. Maybe that boat had passed, which pissed me off as I thought about it. To think, I wouldn’t be able to have that beautiful bitch in my mouth ever again. It bothered me more than I thought it should. I mean, my brain was trying to tell me that she was just some cheerleader-looking slut, but I wasn’t buying it. Everybody had already erased that picture of her. I wanted to know who she really was.

“Whatever you’re comfortable in is fine,” she finally answered in a grumble.

“And you’ll pick me up?” I asked. While I had a car and liked working on them, I had always hated driving.

Trin was quiet for a while, like she was considering it. “Sure. A few days from now at seven good for you?”

“Um… yeah,” I agreed. Even though I had had boyfriends before, it was my first real date. Little did I know, but it was hers too. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Trin)

I really would have preferred not going out with Tatsu. I wanted to detest her so badly. I wanted to be able to destroy her, but when she asked what she should wear, I felt odd. Something inside of me jumped, forcing me to answer in a way that let her know that the date was still open. Fine, so I had a date.

I wanted it to be special, but I also told myself to not take her feelings into consideration when making the plans for dinner. I shouldn’t care about her feelings because she didn’t care about mine. I didn’t listen, though. I didn’t have it in me to hurt her despite what she had done to me. I wanted things to go smoothly because I wanted her to like me.

I don’t know why I wanted her to like me. I don’t know why I liked her. I wanted to talk to my mother about it, but I was already embarrassed and I doubt my mother wants to hear that I gave my body to someone I know nothing about because I was curious as to why she liked my body so much. Well, that and she made my body feel really good. It was all so confusing to me, but still, I made plans without any advice. I like to think I did a good job for a person who has never gone out on a date.

I made reservations at a restaurant in Upperton. I had to go to another town for the simple reason that I didn’t want anyone staring at me and then possibly having my demons come out, thus ruining the evening. I just hoped that she didn’t assume I didn’t want to be seen with her because that was not the case. I’d explain it to her when I went to pick her up, I decided.

Tatsu wasn’t one for dressing up. She had on a plain, regular black crewneck t-shirt along with some tan cargo pants. I felt overdressed for the first time in my life, even though I always overdress. She stared at me when she got in the car. Perhaps, she was considering that she was underdressed. I tried to assure her that everything was fine, but she continued to look skeptical. Tatsu didn’t trust me much and I wished that I could say that I was the same, but that wasn’t the case.

I suppose the fact that I surrendered myself to her so many times influenced my trust in her. In all the times that she could’ve abused my body, she didn’t. I had no idea that sex was so… connective. I mean, Shin did it all of the time, but he never got so attached to anyone. I guess that was one of our few differences. I still didn’t like that I trusted her so much, but that was my own fault.

But, what did I know about Tatsu aside from she got great pleasure from having power over me and she fixed cars? I didn’t even know her age. I didn’t even know we had gone to high school together, mostly, due to the fact that she hardly attended. I didn’t even know if that piercing blue was her real eye color or contacts; they happened to be her real eyes. I just didn’t know a thing about her.

Dinner started out awkward and uncomfortable. I doubt it helped matters that we had to go to another town to eat a meal. She didn’t seem to like the atmosphere of the restaurant. It was one of Shin’s favorite places to eat because they served dishes from all over the world and he loved a variety of foods. I liked it, too, because of the diverse menu and I took her there because I didn’t know what kinds of foods she liked.

She didn’t know what to order, though. She didn’t know what most of the stuff was. She just wanted something simple and everything seemed so complicated, she later told me that. I tried suggesting things to help her out and try to ease some of our tension, but she wasn’t really paying me any mind. I doubted that she wanted what I was having, as I have found not too many people like squid. She settled on anything that was grilled chicken and came with rice. When she was done, she didn’t even look at me and my stomach twisted to the point I doubted I’d be able to keep my squid down.

I wasn’t about to give up, even though she was making it seem like I should’ve just stayed home and just borrowed a GJ satellite for the evening. I ventured into deep waters and talked about cars. I typically made it a point to never talk about a subject that I didn’t know something about, but I wasn’t sure what else she was into. She started talking about cars at first, but when she made it to engines, I actually jumped in. I knew about engines, not much, but enough to make some conversation. She looked at me as if I had two heads when I did say something, which made me shut up. I considered that I probably said something stupid since I was no engine expert. This was the first time I felt this way outside of dealing with my family. I decided to just be quiet for a moment or maybe even for the rest of the wretched evening. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Tatsu)

I noticed I had… what’s the word? Right, I noticed I discouraged her because she caught me by surprise. The prissy bitch knew about engines? It was a shock. It’s just not something people expect to hear from well-dressed blonde chicks.

I figured I should do something because it was obvious that she was trying to be nice. Although, I thought she was acting like a showoff with such an expensive place to eat with foods I couldn’t even pronounce. I was a bit uncomfortable, especially since we left Middleton just to go eat, but she had told me that she didn’t like going out in Middleton because people stared at her and that made her uncomfortable. I thought she was being all high and mighty, like people stared at her because she was so pretty, but that wasn’t it.

I figured since I was there already, I should make the most of it. I mean, who cares that I left Middleton? I needed to get out of town every now and then. It was actually my first time out of town. I should enjoy it.

So, I went into simple stuff, hoping she wouldn’t catch me by surprise again. I asked how old she was. She was younger than me by a few months. I asked her what she did. I wasn’t surprised that she went to college and when I asked her what she was studying, she was happy to share that she was going to be a biochemist. I didn’t know what the hell a biochemist was and I had no clue what they did. I was only getting the idea that the bitch was smart, maybe too smart for me.

She didn’t rub it in that she was smart. She didn’t even get too technical with everything. The second that she was going to lose me, she seemed to know to stop, which she did. She then asked some of her own questions, like if I planned on working on illegal racecars for the rest of my life. I shrugged because I didn’t know what I was going to do with my life then and I didn’t really give a damn.

We kept on talking, which was weird for the both of us. I didn’t usually talk to people for long and conversations were pretty much a foreign concept to me. I got information on cars and what was wrong with them and then told people what I had to fix when I was done. I didn’t chitchat until Trin and we talked about nothing as far as I could tell, but I came away feeling comfortable around her.

After a while, I didn’t care where we were, namely out of town in a restaurant that I didn’t know most of the stuff on the menu. I was enjoying myself just talking to her. When we were done and she took me home, she made another date, which I almost eagerly accepted. I caught myself. I then asked her in a mumble if it was okay for me to call her before our date and she told me it was fine. I kissed her goodnight and my life along with my phone bill would never be the same. 

-8-8-8-8-

Next time: Trin has Tatsu over at the apartment, but why is Shin so pissed about it?


	13. Polygamy of the soul

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own these characters, except for Trin, Shin, and Tatsu; oddly enough they are the only characters in this chapter too. Anyway, the other characters are owned by Disney.

13: Polygamy of the soul

(Trin)

I wanted everything to be perfect. I had picked out the perfect outfit along with the perfect shoes, even though I knew she didn’t care about that. I made her favorite dinner. I practiced it several times prior to make sure that I got it just right. It was our six-month anniversary and Tatsu was coming to the apartment for the first time, so I wanted everything to go swimmingly.

I knew I was acting strangely. I always acted peculiar when it came to Tatsu. She was my baby by that time and I wanted everything to perfect for her. I always put forth a noticeable amount of effort when it came to her. I’m almost certain it was a sickening sight, but I have yet to give a damn.

The anniversary was special too, beyond the fact that we were still together. We decided that we were going to spend the night together. Ever since we started seriously dating, we decided to start over. So, there hadn’t been any sex, much to Tatsu’s frustration. She was holding on for me and I finally felt comfortable with the idea of not just her touching me, but me touching her. Shin thought that the whole thing was stupid. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Shin)

It was stupid. The whole stupid thing was stupid. Watching her move about the house like she was gliding was just disgusting. I hated her being all in love in our area. Our apartment should’ve been a love-free zone, but, damn it, if Tatsu wasn’t fucking up our atmosphere.

To make matters worse, she was getting dinner made for her. Trin was my chef! So, if she was making dinner, it should’ve been for me. Instead, I was expected to go outside for the night or stay in my room, like I was the damn Hunchback.

Okay, so I was taking things a little hard, obviously. But, she was my harpy. I had her first and she was my evil twin. I shouldn’t have to share her with anyone whose last name wasn’t Possible. But, I didn’t say that out loud. Come on, the harpy was in love and she was disturbingly happy, so I couldn’t burst her little pink bubble.

Besides, while her behavior made me want to violently throw up, she was being considerate toward me. It wasn’t like she just brought Tatsu up to the apartment one day, forced me to interact with her, and then capped the day off by keeping me up with wild, loud sex. She had asked me if I was all right with Tatsu coming and even though the only thing I’d be all right with was Tatsu dying a painful and messy death, I told her I didn’t have a problem with Tatsu being over. She probably knew I was lying through my damn teeth, but that was the answer she wanted, so she didn’t call me on the lie.

I truly hated Tatsu for a long while, especially before I hung out with her a couple of times. I didn’t like how she made my harpy act all gushy and in love. I didn’t like that she made my evil twin so happy just by being around. Wasn’t I a good enough companion? Sure, I wouldn’t fuck Trin on a bet, but other than sex, I had to be just as good a companion as Tatsu, if not better. At least, I thought so.

I did realize that I was just going to have to accept Tatsu somewhat. I mean, she had the harpy all in love and everything. I couldn’t believe my eyes while I watched her move around the kitchen, making “her baby’s” favorite meal. The stupid pet name made me want to cut my tongue off. I had been the guinea pig for the practice meals and I have to say Trin could cook her ass off. I stuck around that night just because I wanted the “perfected” meal fresh from the oven. So, I was confined to my room for the night with a great chicken dinner.

I suppose the good thing about things was that at least Tatsu wasn’t a guy. I mean, if Tatsu had been a guy then I have no doubt that Trin would’ve had Tatsu’s baby by now. She was that smitten. What the hell would we do with a brat around? So, like I said, I guess that was the one good thing. It was the only good thing I could see at the time. It would be enough to say that eventually I learned that Tatsu wasn’t the evil, best-friend-stealing bitch I thought she was. But, at the time, all I could think was fuck her. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Trin)

I was nervous. I just wanted everything to be perfect for my baby. She was driving quite a few hours just to see me. I wanted to make sure it was worth it. I put on some makeup and perfume, needing to look and smell my best. I checked out my outfit and everything else in my full-length mirror for about the millionth time in less than ten minutes before she showed up. I greeted her with a quick kiss and ushered her into the apartment. She looked a bit tired and I knew it was because she hated driving.

I wanted to her relax her and make her comfortable in the apartment because I wanted her to come back. I didn’t really need to try hard with relaxing her. It came natural to me because we liked being with each other.

“You look nice,” she said, giving me the once over.

“I did my best,” I replied, trying to be humble for some reason.

“You’re always beautiful, you know that?”

I smiled bright at her. “How was the trip?” I asked to steer the subject away from me. If she kept going on about how I looked, I would be blushing and giggling like a silly teenage girl.

She went right into talking about her ride out there. Tatsu surprisingly had very horrible road rage, which was why she disliked driving. It stressed her out. I couldn’t imagine my very soft-spoken baby barking at people on the highway, but she explained that it seemed like no one on the planet knew how to operate their cars, especially when she was next to them. And things like that got on her nerves, so I listened to her complaints, adding in what I could when she wanted me to.

Once she was done, she looked around and asked where Shin was. I told her that Shin didn’t exist for the night. She only smirked, but it wasn’t because she didn’t like Shin, even though it was fairly evident that he had a problem with her. Tatsu was too laidback about a lot of things to let his feelings toward her bother her. She was amazingly understanding as to why he detested her.

She knew that he felt she stole me from him. Maybe she did, she always conceded. He had a right to be angry if that was the case, she believed. She actually empathized with the big baby.

She did make it clear that I wasn’t his anymore, though, despite all of her empathy. She flat out told me with him right in the same room with us that I was hers now and she wasn’t going to let anyone else have me. He looked rather offended, especially since I didn’t argue. I never minded being hers, even when I should have minded, but I did tell her that she might want to check that line around my siblings. I later had to console Shin as she had thoroughly wounded his ego.

We had a quiet dinner, much like we would at a restaurant. She complimented my cooking, saying it was the best meal that she had had in a long time. I was happy with that and I’m sure it showed on my face. I even blushed. Only she could do that to me. I could control my emotions around everyone else, but not her. When I was happy, it was noticeable and I was typically happy around her. When I was sad, she could tell, even over the phone. When I was stressed, she could hear it in my voice or see it in my eyes.

After dinner, Tatsu wanted to take a shower, so I showed her to the bathroom. I got everything that she needed for a shower and I took her bag into my room while she was cleaning herself up. I decided to get ready for bed.

I was actually a bit anxious about what was going to happen. I realized that I didn’t know what to do. She used to do everything, after all. I doubt it would’ve been proper for me to just lie there while she did everything on such a special night. Besides, I didn’t want to just lie there. I wanted to do everything to her. I wanted to experience her like she used to experience me.

“I should’ve done some research,” I muttered, angry with myself. It was too late to do it now, unless I just watched some Internet porn. The very thought made me shudder.

I tried to stop thinking about it, knowing that wasn’t going to help matters. I put on what would quickly become my baby’s favorite lingerie to see me in, simple powder blue lace bra and panties. I put on a very thin, matching teddy over the lingerie, even though I doubted I would be wearing it for long. I still wanted to look as sexy as possible for her.

A little while later, Tatsu entered the room. She wore a black sports bra and black basketball shorts. I once again felt overdressed around her. She was actually about to go right for the bed, like she forgot the outline for the night or she thought she would wait there for me. And then, she caught sight of me standing by my closet on the opposite end of the room.

The bed seemed irrelevant as soon as she saw me. I was flattered while she stared at me, seemingly incredulous to what she was witnessing. It did help ease away the butterflies that were gathering in my stomach. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Tatsu)

I stopped breathing for a few seconds. Trin was beautiful in her dinner clothes, but Trin in almost nothing was a breathtaking sight. I bet that her in nothing was even better. For a moment, I wondered if I could possibly talk her into never wearing clothes ever again. But, then, she would probably never leave the apartment again.

She walked over to me when she saw that she had my complete attention. Hell, a bomb could’ve gone off in the next room and I wouldn’t have stopped looking at her. She kind of shimmied over to me or something, just shaking everything on her body as she came up to me. God, she was tempting.

She kissed me and that was about all I needed to get going. I quickly pulled off the little nightgown thing that she had on. I didn’t even know why the hell she bothered with that. I then grabbed one handful of her plump ass and another handful of her ample breast. She had all sorts of things to hold onto and I was eager to grab all that I could. And to think, all of that was mine. She was mine.

I wanted to put my mouth everywhere I could, too. It started with her mouth and she was so good at kissing that I wanted to stay there forever, but I wanted a mouthful of her milky skin. I stayed at her mouth for a long time, though because I liked knowing that she liked kissing me. Yeah, I knew that she used to think it was disgusting, but she damn sure liked it now. Take that every girl who ever kissed Trin!

Once I finally made it passed her mouth and made my way down, I realized that soon I’d see her naked. I actually had never seen Trin naked before. When I used to just fuck her in the garage, I didn’t need her naked for that, but now I couldn’t wait to see her naked. In fact, the moment couldn’t come soon enough.

I fumbled with her bra like I was some dumb preteen punk. I was just too eager and my damn fingers weren’t doing what I wanted them to. She helped me out with the bra and soon she was completely bare to me and it was the greatest thing I had ever seen. Hell, it still is the greatest thing I have ever seen. I can see why she always says she’s perfect. I drooled, literally drooled, at the sight. She eased herself down onto the bed, which was good because I would’ve tried my damnedest to just fuck her standing up because I wanted her that badly.

She slowed me down by reminding me that we had the whole night to ourselves. We had all night and she was right, but I wanted her so badly and she was right there for me, looking better than a million bucks. It took me a few minutes to realize on my own that the night was supposed to be special. It wasn’t just about a quick fuck and it wasn’t just for me.

I owed Trin for every time that she laid there and just took abuse from me. I wanted to show her that I wasn’t really like that, especially when it came to her. I could be tender and caring and she needed to see that. I had to go slowly. It was a necessity.

I actually liked going slow. I got to savor every inch of her body while tasting her more thoroughly than I had ever done anything in my life. My favorite place to spend time was her breasts and she actually held me there for a while, letting me know that she liked me there. I worked up a little sweat for both of us while suckling her and leaving a few marks. She made some of the most wonderful sounds I ever heard, much more now than she ever did in my garage. I just wanted to stay there, sucking her and getting her to make those sounds forever. But, I eventually made it lower.

I kissed and caressed her most private area for as long as she let me. She tasted so good and I could’ve just stayed there for the rest of my life. She felt so good shivering under my fingertips, gushing all over my hand. Those pretty sounds she made when was at her breasts only got louder as I licked her and moved inside of her. She was so warm and soft. I loved everything about her and wanted to love every inch of her. She eventually stopped me. She wanted to do something aside from come it would seem, but I made sure she climaxed a couple of times before I was ready to switch.

I didn’t know what to expect as far as having her touch me. I didn’t know what to expect when she saw me completely. I mean, I wasn’t like her. I didn’t have the body of a model and while I knew she cared about me, I was still kind of nervous about her seeing me without any clothes on. Not that I was wearing much clothing at the moment. Still, I wouldn’t turn out to be a goddess when I was naked. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Trin)

I wanted to touch and taste Tatsu just like she did with me. She seemed rather reluctant to show me her nude body, though. I knew she thought that I would judge her for not being as well endowed as I was, but I wasn’t going to settle for her thinking such a thing about me. I wasn’t there to judge her. I wouldn’t consider doing such a thing.

To me, her body was perfect anyway. She had a tight pack abs on her. She worked out every now and then and lifting parts in her garage and working with her hands helped keep her in shape. I couldn’t resist caressing her stomach, first with my fingertips and then with my tongue. I was running on pure desire for a long time and I suppose I was doing all right since she wasn’t complaining.

But, since Tatsu was nowhere near as noisy as I was, I thought maybe I wasn’t doing so well. I’ve come to understand that not too many people are as noisy as I am, but I didn’t know that at the time. It was my first time doing anything of that nature, after all, so it was very plausible that I wasn’t performing well. I halted to ask her if I was doing anything wrong. Her response was frustrated growl and an order to not stop, never stop. On that note, I pressed on, confident that I wasn’t doing a horrible job, even if she wasn’t screaming to the ceiling or into a pillow as I had a very bad habit of doing.

I didn’t have a favorite body part at the time, so I spent a great deal of time wandering her body. I was just looking to discover the areas that she liked me to pay greater attention to in the future. Everything on her was fascinating to me and I wanted to examine every little bit with my entire body, but especially my fingers, hands, lips, and tongue.

I finally understood how Tatsu could delight in my body because I rapidly became addicted to hers. The first touch, I actually almost melted. Discovering her so aroused and I was the cause, I didn’t even know what to do with the information. My hands and mouth worked on their own, experiencing this amazing woman who wanted to be with me for some reason. She was the nectar of the gods as far as I was concerned. I wanted her always after that.

We decided to try to go to sleep well after midnight. I curled up next to her, resting on her chest and giving her a chance to be the taller one for once. I kissed her collar bone and timidly whispered an “I love you.” It was the first time I said it to her and I was nervous about how she would react.

I mean, Tatsu was a closed-off person and I wasn’t sure how attached she was to me. I wasn’t too confident that she saw me in the same light that I saw her. What if she didn’t believe me? What if she withdrew? I imagined that she would retreat back into her shell, but I needed to tell her how I felt, even though it was fairly obvious to anyone with eyes that I was deeply in love with her.

Tatsu ran her fingers lightly down my body, not distracting me as much as it would at any other time. I shivered from the contact, but she probably assumed it was because I was cold. She made sure the yellow blanket on my bed was covering me completely. I was glad that she hadn’t noticeably retreated back into her shell, but she hadn’t replied and that scared me.

What if she didn’t love me in return? I knew for a fact that I would die if she didn’t. I just wouldn’t be able to take loving her and knowing that she didn’t return the feeling. I would lock myself away in my room and slowly whither away.

“I love you, too,” she replied with more much assurance than I had said it with. “Can we go sleep now, please?” she then requested with a yawn. It wasn’t like she was trying to brush me off or anything like that. She was really tired.

I smiled a bit and cuddled closer to her. Yes, she made me smile. I was loved in return and it was an excellent feeling. I felt that I could actually count myself as lucky in many different ways. I had a loving family, a great best friend, and a fantastic lover. Such wonder pieces in the puzzle of life and I felt fulfilled knowing that I had them all. I believed I really didn’t need much else from life, except for one other thing.

The one thing I wanted I knew would take some time, but I wanted all of the pieces to connect. I wanted Shin to accept Tatsu and one day I wanted to be able to tell my family that I had a loving relationship with a beautiful and wonderful woman. That would take some time and effort, though. I knew that, but I would wait and put forth the effort. 

-8-8-8-8-

The end. Assume that “Pariah” was the next key event in everyone’s lives.

There is an epilogue coming up where the Possible family weighs in on Trin and Shin, also Ron, Shego, and Doctor Director add in.


	14. Pound for pound

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own these characters, except for Trin, Shin, and Tatsu. Everyone else belongs to Disney. I also still don’t Edgar Allen Poe.
> 
> This epilogue was inspired by Aya Rose.

14: Pound for pound

(Mrs. Ann Possible)

I remember when I first saw Trin. She was a frail looking creature, but she had spirit. I knew that from the moment I saw her. She was trying so hard to be strong, even though she was just a baby. I didn’t understand who could just leave a baby like that. I mean, when I thought I lost her in the mall, I nearly lost my mind in under an hour. I was so scared that I lost Trin forever. I was in tears and I had looked everywhere for her. I couldn’t fathom purposely leaving her anywhere.

When we took her into our care, she seemed both wary and wanting of us. It was a very odd thing. She would cling to us like life preservers, but still attempted to keep us at an emotional distance, not wanting to get close. I knew she was frightened that we might do the same thing to her as whoever her birth parents were, but she also wanted to stay with us. My husband was the one that suggested officially adopting her. It didn’t even cross my mind because I was so wrapped up in just taking care of her. The notion made all parties involved very happy, including Kimmie and she was just a baby.

Trin and Kim got along well from the start. Kim used to always grin when she saw Trin come into view. Now, she was generally a happy baby, but with Trin, she was even more so. She used to always reach out her arms for her big sister, loving nothing more than to be held by Trin.

Trin liked interacting with Kim and always wanted to know the proper way of handling Kim when she was baby because she didn’t want to hurt Kim. If Trin held Kim, she always made certain that she was holding Kim correctly. It was adorable to see the look of utter concentration on her face when she was holding on to Kim. She used to like to hold the twins too, but by then she had grown up some and she didn’t focus so intensely on holding them like she did with Kim. If she played with Kim, she used to make sure to be as careful as possible. She also made sure Kim got the best of the toys and never complained if baby Kimmie didn’t share with her. She was just too cute with Kim. I think she reveled in having someone so tiny to love and someone to shower affection on. I’m guessing she lacked that before we got her.

It was also cute when Trin used to read to Kim. She was such a bright child. She learned to read and write so quickly after we started taking care of her. She used to like sitting with James and reading the paper with him. It is actually a tradition that survives to this day when she’s home. Back when she was little, he used to help her read, especially when she came across words that she didn’t know. Once she was able to read smoothly, even through the difficult words, she used to constantly look at him and smile. He’d smile back, obviously very proud of her. Every now and then, he would rub her head and kiss her forehead and she just looked like the sun shone just for her. She was such a bright child and she loved the encouragement.

When she started school, we thought she’d do so well. She was already advanced, but her studies weren’t the problem. Her problem was the people, the teachers and the students. They were all so hostile toward her for no real reason. Despite their animosity, her grades were always as brilliant as we expected. At first, I assumed Trin was having problems with people because of her mind, maybe it was her brain that alienated her from the rest of the population, but it wasn’t even something that petty.

They all seemed to pick on Trin because they had come to believe that her biological parents hated her, so they figured that it was all right to hate her. It was such unbelievable and repulsive behavior, especially in adults. I’d like to believe that people are better than that, but with the way they’ve treated our poor little girl through out the years proved that they weren’t.

For a while, I feared Trin would always be alienated from society and never have any friends and then suddenly she started coming home talking about some boy name Shinichi. She used to go on about him for hours and we just listened. We didn’t even need to ask questions. She told us everything she could possibly know about this boy. It was strange behavior for her because she was such a quiet child. She talked about how he didn’t look at her funny or call her names or beat her up. He shared his lunch with her, which was usually some Japanese dish. She declared quite a few times that she loved Japan and she undoubtedly said that because Shin was half Japanese. I believe she had a crush on him back when they first met.

Though I do feel that Shin used to get Trin into a lot of trouble, I’m more than glad that she met him. He helped her out a great deal, even though he fanned the flames of a mischievous side lying under her docile demeanor. The fact that he helped bring her out of her shell and made sure she wasn’t completely socially isolated made up for the trouble he got her into. I had the notion that she would eventually marry Shin because I thought her little crush would grow into real love, which it did, but not that type of romantic love. Well, I suppose everything can’t go according to plan.

Now, I don’t have any problem with Tatsu. I’m very glad that she can make my daughter smile. Trin deserves happiness as much as any other person, especially since she had been shunned by much of the town for no reason. Besides, Tatsu does love Trin and Trin loves her in return. Their relationship seems healthy and wonderful, so I’m happy for them.

Trin, despite some of the things she has done that have gotten her into trouble, she has a good heart. She is affectionate to those that give her the chance, ask Kim, Shin, the twins, and Tatsu. So, she has a good heart and a sharp mind, making me have no doubt that she will be fine throughout life. As she ages, she seems to calm down, so eventually she’ll balance out.

I do know that she and Shin are quick to fight, not just others but each other. They’ll probably grow out of being quick to fight everyone else once they establish themselves in the world in a manner that they like, probably when they have proper jobs. As far as them not fighting each other, I can’t see that stopping anytime soon since they’ve been doing it for over a decade. They always go at each other so hard too. I just hope they don’t hurt each other one day.

Shin is an odd one. I love the boy with all my heart, I really do, but he is just weird. He hasn’t always been weird. He started out as a sweet, but impish boy that liked to get into things. He was a troublemaker from the beginning, but he typically did things that were harmless to the general public. Usually, when he got ideas, they were only potentially dangerous to him, Trin, and Kim if she was with them. He would be one clear example of genius and insanity being in a sense the same thing.

Shin enjoyed tagging along places with me when he was little, but I suspect that was because Trin was with me a great deal of the time. He enjoyed saying that he had a weakness for Possible women, but I imagine that he was just being silly as usual. But, like I said, he was very sweet child.

He is actually very much like his father. Smiling, charming, courteous, but he is only that way toward his parents and us. Shin could have been that way to other people because he was never antisocial like Trin, but he wasn’t a social butterfly either. He would have probably been more open toward people if people weren’t so content in being closed-minded fools and showing him contempt for no reason other than what they assumed his ethnicity to be. I don’t understand why they were so hateful toward him even if he had been Chinese. Trin explained that it was just because he was different. It didn’t really matter what ethnicity he might have been. It was just that he was different. She also believed it was because he was her best friend. If there is even a pinch of truth to that, people are even more awful than I thought before.

Shin is fine where he is without being a very social person. He has a good head on his shoulders, even if it is a bit mixed up. I believe that he’ll be fine as long as Trin is by his side. They are soul mates.

Shin actually jokingly refers to Trin as his wife. I actually believe that he’s right about that one and that’s why I think he’s fine where he is. Trin offers him everything that a wife does, except for a sexual relationship I’m assuming. She is his emotional and moral support. She is his confidant. Not to mention, she is the one that cooks all of their meals and cleans their home.

It is an amazing thing that she could act as a wife for him and still maintain a very loving relationship with Tatsu. Tatsu never seems bothered by Shin, who does sometime seem annoyed with Tatsu. It seems like Trin acts as a wife for both of them, but she manages it and she seems to enjoy things that way. It seems they all have no problem with the setup and they should all be fine as long as they have each other. The relationships Trin has built with both of them is admirable and I think she’s better off than any of those children who picked on her. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Mr. James Possible)

I must admit that I am a lucky man. I’m married to an amazing woman and we’ve got four great kids. Trin sets a good example for the others, despite the fact that she gets into trouble every now and then. She just likes to see what she can do and sometimes that means seeing if she can bend some rules. If she were boy, most people probably would chalk up a lot of antics with a shrug and response of “boys will be boys.”

I remember seeing Trin with my wife when she first came into the house and it was just a delightful sight. Ann was always so attentive to Trin, trying to calm her down in her new environment. It didn’t even occur to me that she might be uncomfortable around us, but Ann made sure that she was all right. She asked Trin’s permission whenever she tried to do something with her, even for simple things, like if she wanted to sit down for breakfast and things like that. She was so caught up in cuddling Trin that it didn’t come to her mind to adopt Trin before some other family tried to take her away.

I noticed how quiet Trin was immediately, even though I didn’t know why she was like that. I just assumed that was how she was. I work with a lot of quiet people, even though I’m not one of them. I’ve never assumed they were traumatized, so it didn’t occur to me that it might be different for her.

She used to sit next to me for breakfast, glancing at me every now and then. I didn’t know why she did that, but after a while I thought it was because she wanted to see the paper. I figured she’d like the pictures or the comics or something, but it turned out that she was just amazed that I could read. Poor child, she hadn’t been exposed to many readers, I suppose. It was during this time that I started realizing how bad her life probably was before us.

I thought about how Ann used to tell me about how small Trin was. When we first got her, she was four, but she had been the size of a two-year-old. I remembered how when she first came to use, she had almost scratched her head bald. Ann took care of all of the physical problems and she didn’t share the worst of it with me, even when I asked, so I tended to just see the curious, adorable child. But, like I said, in that moment, I finally got it. This child had been through horrors and we needed to help her get over it as best we could. I needed my little sunflower to blossom and understand how amazing she was.

She asked me about all the symbols in the paper and she was referring the letters. She didn’t know any letters, so I got around to teaching her the alphabet. Then I taught her how to read, mostly through engineering and space journals. I had hopes to be growing another rocket scientist because she seemed so interested in the articles, but as it turned out my wife was the one that inspired Trin.

It might be easy to tell that Trin is Kim’s hero, but what a lot of people probably don’t know is that Ann is Trin’s hero. Now, Trin might not be making her way to being a medical doctor to show that her mother is her hero outright, but she did enter the natural sciences because of Ann. To this day, she likes to read whatever her mother is reading and often calls to ask what books Ann recommends. If Ann’s published an essay or article of some kind, Trin is the first to read it and commit it to memory. She just believes that her mother is the model of the perfect woman. Well, at least I still have the twins. Surely, they’ll become rocket scientists or at least engineers.

Trin actually used to come with me to the space center often and she enjoyed herself, provided I didn’t make her speak to anyone beyond polite introductions. My colleagues seemed a little put off by her. It might have been for the reasons that most people are put off by Trin or it might have been because she could explain some of their work better than they could if she decided to speak. Well, at least when she got older. Their attitudes toward her might have even started out for the same reasons as most other people and just changed over time when they began to notice that she was a very intelligent girl. It was surprising how insecure and threatened my coworkers could be.

Shin used to accompany us to the space center also and no matter how old he was, he wanted to know what some button did. He never waited for an answer. He merely just pushed the button and waited for results. He reminds me of Ronald in that sense. Sometimes, I wonder if it is a good thing that Shin is as intelligent as he is because it seems to only make him more curious about things and that is how he gets hurt.

I didn’t think too much on Trin meeting Shin because she was so happy to have a friend. Just watching her go on about him put a smile on my face. I was just so glad for her. She needed to have a friend beyond Kim. She needed to get to know people outside of the family and she definitely needed someone outside of the family to care about her. It would show her that she was a human being and she could stop thinking of herself as a thing, which I believe has happened. So, Shin was a godsend in my opinion, even though he did get her into some trouble. They never mean any harm, though. He was always a good kid. His parents did a good job raising him.

I suspected that he was carrying on inappropriately with Trin when they got older, even though he has been an open homosexual since he was about thirteen years old. I did consider that it was a cover story or that he was… what’s it called again… right, bisexual. I thought that he might be bisexual and carrying on with both Trin and boys. This scared me even more than him just carrying on with Trin. He was reckless, so he could get something and then pass it onto her. But, I guess instead of thinking about him acting out with Trin, I should’ve focused on her. Maybe I would’ve figured out that my little sunflower was homosexual, too.

Yes, I called her a sunflower and it was because of her hair color. I suppose I don’t have any problem with her being homosexual. It’s better than her being out with some boy doing who knows what, who knows where. I just didn’t trust boys around my girls. They’re beautiful young ladies and I know most boys are immature and wouldn’t know how to treat them.

I hope Trin and Shin stick together for as long as they live. They make a good team and they keep each other in check. Well, to a degree because I’m not how “in check” Shin will ever be. Surely, they’ll mature into fine adults sooner or later, provided Shin doesn’t manage to kill them both before hand. He has such a bad habit of not looking before he leaps and he doesn’t seem to notice or care. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Kim)

Okay, Trin is like a superhero to me. I don’t know when it happened, but that’s how things are. It probably started when I was little. I used to crawl into her bed after having nightmares. She was the person that chased away the monsters that were under my bed. Sure, I know now that she was just humoring me, but I’d rather that back then than my parents promising me that there was nothing there.

Trin was my first friend. Sure, I had met people when Mom took me to the park or something before I started going to school, but they just weren’t the same as Trin. I can’t pinpoint the difference, but they just weren’t the same. Maybe they weren’t as loving, or as warm, or as understanding, or as smart, but they just weren’t her.

Trin spoiled me from the very beginning. If I cried because I wanted more cookies or cake or something, she gave me hers right from her plate. She used to just do anything I asked her if she was able to do it. I don’t know why and when I was little, I didn’t want to know. I just loved all the attention. I still love the attention.

I used to like when she read to me. It was just the best thing. I was always grabbing books and forcing her to sit down and start reading. She never read me regular things a person would read a child. She liked mythology when she was little, so she’d read me all sorts of myths and my favorites were the Greek ones. And then she got into Poe.

I loved Poe just as much as she did, even though it did make for macabre entertainment for little kids. She also used to read me poetry; oh, little known secret, Trin is a poet at heart. A romantic poet at that.

Shin tried to get into the reading to me thing, too, probably to just feel included because he needs attention around the clock it seems sometimes. He wanted to read graphic novels to me all the time. He liked pointing out that they were better than regular novels because they had pictures. He’d also claim that they were better for a child rather than having me hear about some man being walled up in a crypt. Trin, not liking that she was being criticized, pointed out that it was better for me to read about a man seeing all his problems in a cat than for me to see a drawn picture of a man and woman in bed together. All I can say is they would make for some odd parents if they ever had a kid.

Despite having Trin as my hero, she hasn’t corrupted me like most people swear that she will. In fact, she tries her best to make sure I stay on the right path. If she gets into trouble, she tries to make sure I don’t know about it. Hey, for a long time, I didn’t know about it. I used to think that she voluntarily did things for Global Justice, not that I was supposed to even know that she did stuff for them. But, she let me think it was volunteer work for a long while because she didn’t want me to know she had been doing things, like hacking and stealing satellites.

Trin liked to make sure I did the right thing. She kept on me about my schoolwork and always made sure my schedule was doable. Without her, I would’ve always tried to do everything at once. She was the one that helped me with my homework. Sometimes, it seemed to intimidating to go to our parents because they’re so smart and I didn’t want them to think I was stupid because I couldn’t understand something. She was always there if I couldn’t go to Mom or Dad.

Shin thought it was boring that she tried to keep me on the right path, but he hardly notices that he’s not as bad as he swears he is. Sure, he beats people up and he’s rather promiscuous, but when he beats people up, they’re the ones that started it and what he does behind closed doors really isn’t anyone else’s business. He’s never gone out of his way and hurt anyone in any way. So, no, he’s not the big bad boy that goes out robs people after beating them to a bloody pulp for no reason. He’s entertaining and troublesome at times, but he isn’t bad.

Sometimes, I agree with Trin that Shin is just a big baby. He likes letting her take care of him. I think when he says that she’s his wife, he means it. She pretty much is his wife without the sex. If she was his wife in every sense of the word, they’d have a problem since Tatsu is there.

I hear that Tatsu stole Trin from Shin. Interesting concept since last time I checked I’ve got clean ownership on Trin thanks to the great law that governs the universe, namely I was there first. I was there first, so I call dibs. This is something that Shin would appreciate. Now, I don’t recall anyone asking me if they could have Trin, so she’s still mine.

On a serious note, I have no problem with Trin being Shin’s or Tatsu’s because she will always be my sister. I know she’ll always be there for me and that’s a big deal. Not everyone in the world has someone like that, but I lucked out and I know my sister will always be there for me. I can’t ask for more, especially since I figure if she’ll always be there for me then Shin will always be there, too, since they’re connected at the soul or something. I’ll do my best to be there for them, as well. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Jim and Tim)

We really didn’t know that Trin wasn’t our blood sister for a long time and we’re still not sure if that’s true or not. Our parents never said anything about it and they treated Trin just like the rest of us. We had noticed that they didn’t have any baby pictures of her, but we still didn’t think anything about it. One day, we heard Nana talking about Trin, though, and that was how we found out that she might be adopted.

We’re not really about to believe everything that Nana says, not because she’s old, but because we know she doesn’t like Trin. It was pretty obvious that she didn’t like Trin. She never even called Trin by her name. We don’t really get why she’s like that with Trin. Trin is cool.

Yeah, Trin was always cool. She’s shown us how to blow a lot of things up over the years, especially since she’s always been into chemicals and everything. She was always the first person to get the telescope after we sent something into orbit because she wanted to see it and then we got to see it.

She taught us a lot too about space, like the planets and stars and stuff that we just didn’t think about. We were always just into sending stuff into space and then move on to the next thing, but she got us interested in more than that. Dad got involved, too, and it was a lot of fun.

But, Trin does have her problems. She doesn’t really like robots and sometimes she acts like a shrew. A shrew, right? That’s what Shin sometimes calls her, right?

Yeah, sometimes he says shrew. Shin is the really cool one. He likes space and everything just like Trin and he blows stuff up, too, but he does it all the time. Trin sometimes gets all responsible and uppity about things, but Shin is ready for everything. He likes building robots with us. He brings stuff in for us to take apart and turn into something else. It’s weird that he’s going to be a biochemist or whatever. He should be an engineer. He’s the fun one.

Not much else to say, huh? Oh, no, wait, they’re both really gay. We don’t have anything against them being gay. We just wished they’d keep it to themselves and we don’t mean that they should’ve stayed in the closet. We just wish they’d not do public displays. We saw Shin kissing a dude before and it was disgusting. We saw Trin kissing Tatsu and that was just wicked nasty. But then again, Trin being that affectionate is just sick and wrong. Kissing and all of that stuff is gross in general, even when Mom and Dad do it.

Other than that, we don’t have much to say. They’re both really all right. Trin is cool for a sister, especially since she comes with Tatsu now. Tatsu is extra cool because she likes building rockets. How cool is that?

It’s great that we know a guy like Shin. After all, he likes blowing things up. Hey, we should go see if he wants to blow something up right now. Cool?

Hoo-sha.

Hicka bicka boo. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Ron)

Trin? She’s the antichrist if ever there was one. She’s just pure evil. She was always ripping on Rufus and he’s just an innocent little naked mole rat. I remember when she used to be quiet and everything, probably plotting about when she was going to destroy the world. She used to look at me even back then like she was going to steal my soul and drink my blood.

I mean, yeah, I feel bad that her real parents left her in a mall and I’m not saying any kid deserves that to happen, but maybe they knew something the rest of us didn’t. She was probably always a succubus and her real parents probably knew that. Trin’s never done anybody any good from what I could see.

I don’t know why Kim is always so happy to be around her. It’s not like Trin even cares. Trin doesn’t even like hugging Kim. She looks disgusted when Kim even touches her. She’s rough with Kim sometimes, too, always criticizing something that Kim does, even when Kim wanted to be a hero. It’s like all she wants to do is make Kim feel bad about herself or something.

Trin really just goes around ruining the Possible name. She’s just a bad person. Everyone that she comes across either leaves crying or bleeding. I guess it’s kind of good that everyone knows she’s not really a Possible, but she does make the doctors P-squared look bad as parents and they’re not. She’s just a very evil girl. She’s a demon.

She really used to beat people up for no reason, even in elementary school. She’d always beat up people that she knew she could beat, too. I wouldn’t be surprised if she kicked old people or ate puppies. She just never seemed satisfied unless someone was crying thanks to her. She’d even make kids cry when she got older. That’s just low. I mean, I remember a few times me and K.P would spot her and some little kids would be running away from her crying their eyes out and she would just watch them go, looking satisfied with their tears.

Animals don’t like her either. Well, Rufus doesn’t like her anyway. I bet that cats, dogs, and even rats run away when she’s close by. I bet her shadow has horns on it and she doesn’t have a reflection. I’m totally serious. She has no reflection. You know that means she doesn’t have a soul and that’s because she’s a succubus. I swear she is.

Her friend, Shin, he’s no better. He likes tormenting Rufus by grabbing him by the tail and dangling him high off the ground. He even kicked Rufus once, like he was a ball or something. That’s just weak, man. He was always saying freakish things to me, too.

One day, out of the blue, the guy just rubs my head and asked what kind of shampoo I used while putting his head on my shoulder. Um, hello! Totally sexual harassment. Kim always says that he was only playing, but I don’t know about that guy. That was just plain violating. He’s sniffed me before, too. What the hell is up with that? He’s nuts. I don’t trust him and I don’t think Kim should ever be left alone with him.

He was obsessed with swords, too. Every time I saw him, he was like cleaning a sword or something, like we were about to go to war with the samurai crew up the street or something. I never even saw him fight, except with Trin. I didn’t even know what to make of that, except that it proves they’re just demons because they used to really fight.

Kim never seemed bothered by Trin and Shin going at it like real enemies, but I thought it was really sick and wrong. They were supposed to be close and best friends and everything, but they used to go at each other at the drop of a dime. I don’t think I’ll ever understand that because I’d never do something like that with Kim and not because she’d kick my ass. I just couldn’t go at Kim like that.

They’re just weird. They’re pretty much freaks, demons. I don’t know. I just don’t trust them. There’s a chance that they’ll corrupt Kim. They’ve already made her gay and got her hooked up with Shego. I just don’t know about them, but Kim likes to say that if Trin and Shin were going to do anything really bad, they would’ve done it already. That’s not really a comforting thought. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Shego)

I don’t have much to say about Trin and Shin. I’ve only known them a few months. You know, when I first met Trin, I thought something was really wrong with her. She seemed really overprotective and obsessive with Kimmie. It was disturbing, but it turned out that she was just being that way because of all the bullshit that we were going through.

Knowing her now, she’s not exactly normal, but she isn’t as obsessive with Kim as I thought. She just likes her little sister it would seem. She likes being friends with Kim, which I guess is cool.

One of the weird things about Trin is her relationship with Shin. I don’t know what to make of them. Kim says they act like a married couple, which they do sometimes, especially when they argue over stupid things. But, the way that they fight each other is nothing like a married couple. They really fight each other, more than I really used to fight Kim when I still worked for Drakken.

Then, after they kick each other’s asses, they go back to being the best of friends. They take care of each other’s wounds. Trin might even go make Shin’s favorite meal after a fight. They’re some nutty kids.

The thing about them acting like a married couple and the way they fight does lend to their sexual preferences. It seems logical that they both should be gay for the simple fact that if they weren’t, they’d be attracted to each other and they’d kill each other. They’d never get around to having sex because they’d probably get into an argument right in the middle of it and then start fighting each other, forgetting that they were supposed to be having sex. So, it’s good they’re both gay.

The next weird thing about Trin, in my opinion anyway, is her relationship with Tatsu. Seeing Trin without Tatsu and then seeing Trin with Tatsu is like watching two different people. Trin without Tatsu around is a quiet bookworm unless Shin starts up. He has a bad habit of being a fool sometimes. Trin with Tatsu is a talkative, affectionate, almost vomit-inducing sight because she acts like a girl in love. Shin says she’s been that way for months now. He’s hoping she stops soon and he’s not the only one. Watching someone like Trin, who I know is a kick-ass, crazy genius, gushing over someone like Tatsu, a brooding misfit if never there was one, is just ri-damn-diculous.

Shin is off the hook, though. I like partying with him. He knows how to go out and have a good time. The funny thing is that when I feel like I need to go and get home to Kimmie, he sometimes agrees with me on that note and feels he needs to go home and get to his harpy as he likes to say. He usually does that when Tatsu isn’t staying over. If Trin has Tatsu, Shin has no problem with disappearing for almost a whole day. He usually comes in for dinner, complaining that he hasn’t had a good meal all day.

Yeah, so, I don’t have anything against the pair. I don’t know if I like Trin or not because she can be annoying and she’s bitchy at times, but she’s that way on purpose. It’s like if Shin does something that pisses her off, she gets him back. The problem is just that he tends to piss her off while she’s making food and, damn it, I want to eat, but she’s got to do something to him. Sometimes, the rest of us suffer her moods because of him, so I don’t know if I like her or not.

I know it should be more like I don’t like Shin because he’s the one pissing off the chef, but I like him. Shin is a damn good party animal, so I like him, plain and simple. He’s cool. I guess Trin is cool sometimes. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Doctor Director)

Trin and Shin… I have yet to figure those two out. I don’t know if they’re evil. I suppose they’re just bored and I’ve also come to understand that they’ve been trampled on most of their lives by a great deal of people. It doesn’t excuse their behavior and it does make me wonder if they’ll end up looking for revenge against the world. For Shin, it sounds like it would be too much work, according to his mother anyway.

I do trust the boy’s mother, despite some of the decisions she’s made in life. She hasn’t been proven wrong about anything that I think was a bad move, though, and she has always been a valued agent, for longer than her madcap son has even been alive. I’m sure she keeps him in check. After all, he hasn’t killed anyone yet. Hey, he hasn’t even come close, so that’s a good thing.

I don’t believe Trin or Shin would even consider purposely killing a person. Yes, Trin came close when she went after Ken Du, but it should be noted that after she thoroughly beat him, she sat with him to make sure that no one dangerous discovered his injured body. We even found a couple of fallen villains around him, suggesting that she beat them up for being too close. She refused to admit to protecting him and only accepted that she had been the one to have inflected the damage on him. He was unconscious through out the ordeal, but I doubt that he would have admitted that she protected him, even if he witnessed it.

The pair only seems interested in seeing what they can do when they put their minds to it, usually something illegal. They tend to do things and neglect to take into account what their actions might do to others. Typically when they committed a crime, they were “borrowing” a satellite to prove that they could do it or to learn how to operate the thing. I’ve come to see that most of the time, they’re just kids that like to borrow things without asking and hope that they don’t break it before they return it. Unfortunately, those things are usually million dollar pieces of technology. I do know that one of them is collecting things from my desk. I’m leaning toward Shin because he’s weird, but Trin might do it because she’s irksome.

I actually wouldn’t mind them working for GJ one day, but I know they wouldn’t want to. My only hope is that they grow up sometime soon. Tashawna swears that they’re maturing, but after what they did with Shego, I don’t know. I think I should keep an eye on them because I don’t know what they were planning with Shego.

Now, I have heard that Shego is dating Kim Possible. Apparently, Trin went out of her way to do something illegal to get her little sister a date. I swear I don’t know where the hell these kids are coming from. They are just completely nuts, even the good one if she is dating Shego.

But, before they did that thing with Shego’s files, I noticed that we hadn’t heard from them for a long time, about a year or so. They were focused on schoolwork, so maybe they are maturing. They are about to graduate and I know that Trin has dreams of getting a doctorate since it seems that one can’t have the last name Possible and not be a doctor in something by the age of thirty. I suppose only time will tell with those two.

I will admit that when I first met them, I thought that they were just bad kids. I thought they were planning all sorts of devious things, but that has proven false so far, which Tashawna tried to assure me would be the case. Perhaps, they’ll be all right. They do come from decent homes and seem to have proper goals. Maybe the next time that I have to deal with them, it’ll be on good terms. 

-8-8-8-8-

(Nana Possible)

The girl, I don’t know why my boy even bothered with adopting that girl. She was obviously faulty, defective in some way. Why else would her real parents just leave her some place and never return? Obviously, there was something wrong with her and they just let her into their home. She was like a curse that they just welcomed into their home. And as soon as they let her in, she proved to be quite the little plague.

She quickly corrupted little Kimberly Ann. She used to read to little Kimberly all sorts of bleak and horrific tales, filling her innocent mind with all sorts of dark and frightful images. What kind of thing is that to do?

And Ann just allowed it. Sometimes, I just don’t know what kind of mother she is. I mean, just letting those girls run around all sorts of places with those boys and in those pants. Like I said, sometimes I just don’t know what kind of mother she is. She probably should stay home more often.

And then there’s that boy that the adopted one hangs out with. He’s most certainly a child of fornication. I’ve hardly ever seen his father and his mother is a very young woman. She definitely had him when she was a teenager and she probably wasn’t prepared when she had him. When he was little, his mother constantly left him with my boy and Ann, who already had their hands full with that girl they had. That little whirlwind of a boy was always into something, undoubtedly backed by that cursed girl. They just acted as if they didn’t have any home training at all.

They were always just a rotten little duo and they didn’t get any better as they got older. They were always getting into vicious fights and starting trouble. Who knows what they did when there weren’t any adults around, but considering the things that they did when people were looking, surely what they did when no one was around was outright worse. I’m sure that when they were left alone or found places to be alone, they behaved immorally.

I only hope that Kimberly Ann doesn’t follow that girl’s example. She’ll hopefully grow out of all that other behavior that she picked up from that other one. I had hoped that my son would realize that something was wrong with that girl before he adopted her, but I’m sure Ann got very attached to that little urchin. And now, they’re stuck with her and she never seems to be getting any better. In fact, she just seems to be getting worse as times goes on.

She’ll probably end up in jail or pregnant by that boy she’s always with. She might end up both. I doubt that boy would stick around either. It’s not like he has a good father figure in his life to model himself after. My poor son should’ve just left that girl and he wouldn’t have to deal with everything that comes up or will come up thanks to her. 

-8-8-8-8-

The End.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is part of series. The next story in the series is called [Forsaken](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2006241/chapters/4347999).
> 
> So, here's some art for this story/series:
> 
> By [Kaytropolist](http://kaytropolist.deviantart.com/): Pariah: [The Serpent's Birthday](http://kaytropolist.deviantart.com/art/Pariah-The-Serpent-s-Birthdday-39982872) and [Pariah: Side by Side](http://kaytropolist.deviantart.com/art/Pariah-Side-by-Side-39982885)
> 
> By [YogurthFrost](http://yogurthfrost.deviantart.com/): [No, Shin, you can't do that](http://yogurthfrost.deviantart.com/art/No-Shin-you-can-t-do-that-49473565) and [MKP - Trin, Shin, and Tatsu](http://yogurthfrost.deviantart.com/art/MKP-Trin-Shin-and-Tatsu-86011042) (it's part of this cool series he did called Magic: Kim Possible).
> 
> If you wanna see more of my fanfics, they're all at FFN under [StarvingLunatic](https://www.fanfiction.net/~starvinglunatic). And last, if you wanna see some original stories, you can look at FP under [StarvingLunatic](https://www.fictionpress.com/u/576301/).


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